


Life Outside the Vault

by GirlZombieSlayer



Category: Fallout 76
Genre: Appalachia, F/F, I know the game has no NPCs but obviously my story needs a cast, West Virginia
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-19
Updated: 2019-06-21
Packaged: 2019-08-04 06:55:50
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 31,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16341971
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GirlZombieSlayer/pseuds/GirlZombieSlayer
Summary: Born in Vault 76 eight months after the bombs dropped, Lyna has never seen the outside world until Reclamation Day. She, along with the other Vault Babies, were prepared to rebuild America. She just didn't except West Virginia to look the way that it did.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own Fallout 76, Bethesda owns it all but I do own Phoibe, Scott, Lyna, Karen, Kathryn and any Vault Dweller names I make up cause I need a cast lol.
> 
> Only the first chapter will be posted until Fallout 76 is in my possession when it comes out. I need to know a lot about the lore and everything else to try and piece together the next chapter but I hope this will tie you all over until the game is out. :)
> 
> Also the whole twenty years thing has been going around a lot. People don't know if it was suppose to open twenty years later and then something went wrong and the Vault stayed closed for an extra five years or it was originally suppose to be twenty-five years due to some lore mentioned in Fallout 3 (I think it was 3, might've been New Vegas for all I know) that Vault 76 was suppose to open up twenty years after the Great War but ultimately in the new game, opened up 25 years after the bombs dropped instead of twenty. I'm going a long with it cause if it was suppose to open up in 2097, why didn't it? Was there a malfunction? Did the Overseer not think the Dwellers were ready? Or is Vault Tec just a bunch of jerks? lol

_October 22nd 2077, 9:22pm_

The door to a house located in the town of Flatwoods was unlocked and a very tired man stepped into the house. His keys were tossed into the glass bowl on the table by the front door, he worked a whopping twelve hours today. "Honey?" asked Scott Carter as he shrugged off his paramedic jacket off. He looked towards the kitchen and saw their usual take out bag sitting in the middle of the table with their usual sodas sitting beside it. He hung his jacket up and walked into the kitchen, hands grabbing at his sides the second he passed the entry way and he shouted in surprise.

The laughter that ensued after his scream made him realize his wife, Phoibe, had been hiding. "Got you." she smiled.

"You are such an ass." he smirked, leaning over and pecking their lips together. "How was work?"

Phoibe worked for the Vault-Tec Agricultural Research Center and has been since she graduated college at 19. Something about wanting to hire a genius, Scott still wondered how he ended up on a date with her, let alone married to her. "I was sent him early." she spoke making Scott raise a brow. "I threw up." She tilted her head and grimaced a little. "During a meeting."

Scott looked at the table, there was so much take out food. Their usual Friday night dinner. "And you're well enough to eat our usual?"

"I went to the doctor and I got checked, you know. Making sure I wasn't sick." she moved to the table, her husband moving after her. "I'm not sick." She began taking their take out containers out of the brown paper bag. "I'm just pregnant."

Her husband opened his mouth to say something but as she looked at him, she shut his mouth and almost looked shocked. "You're...pregnant?" She hummed and nodded with a small smile.

The man went at her, scooping her into his arms and making her squeal as she clung to him. "You're pregnant!" She nodded as he spun them around before setting her down. "How far?"

"Six and a half weeks. I suspected cause my period never showed up but...I know my period has be late due to stress so I didn't want to bring it up until I checked with the doctor." she stated as she rested her hands on his shoulders. "So when I threw up, I had a good idea I could've been but when my boss sent me home I went right to my doctor for a test."

Scott kissed her forehead and she almost melted against him. "Well it's great. We've been trying since our honeymoon last year." he smiled as he ran a hand through her shoulder length black hair.

"I'm hungry." she muttered making him laugh.

They both sat down at the table and took their containers. Scott had his usual cheeseburger with lettuce, tomatoes, and onions with a side of onion rings. Phoibe on the other hand however, didn't get her usual burger and had gotten an order of eight chicken tenders with onion rings and honey mustard to dip them in. 

Five minutes into eating their dinner, Phobie spoke. "My boss gave me two spots." he looked up at her with a raised brow. "For the Vault if anything happens, I would've called when I found out I knew a bad car crash had happened nearby and you'd be busy."

"For seventy-six right?" he asked, a nod was his answer. "You do know the only reason I got into the Vault is cause my wife here is a super genius right?"

"Not a super genius." she laughed. "I called him and told him about me being pregnant but he said there's technically no need for a saved spot for the baby until..." she made a motion towards Scott and a popping noise. "He wrote it down in the notes though." She took a bite out of a chicken tender after dipping it and looked at Scott. "Can you drive me there tomorrow? I gotta be there to see the Overseer around one in the afternoon."

Scott nodded before sinking his teeth into his burger, groaning as the condiments fell out and made a mess over his face before landing in the container. He caught the roll of paper towels that was tossed at him. "And after, we'll go grocery shopping."

The woman nodded and they just decided to chat about their day at work. Although Phoibe had only managed to be at work for two hours before throwing up. Scott, as a First Responder/Paramedic, had not only a car crash to deal with but a kid breaking his leg, then an old man who had fallen and couldn't get up.

After they ate, they cleaned up and went to lay down in the bed to watch some TV but eventually fell asleep. Scott's hand over Phoibe's belly, he knew it was too early for her to have a bump but he was happy. 

The phone was what woke Phoibe up the following morning. She groaned and sat up, a wave of nausea smacking her in the face but thankfully nothing came up as she walked to the phone. "Hello?" she rasped out as she answered it.

"Phoibe?!" asked her boss. "Phoibe listen to me very carefully."

"Boss?"

"You need to go to the Vault now." he rushed out.

"Was the meeting bumped..."

He let out an annoyed noise. "No, listen to me! There is no meeting! Pack what you think is important! Then get to the Vault!"

It took her moment before realizing just how worried he sounded. "What's going on?"

"Pack and get to the vault! NOW!" he hung up on her making her look at the phone.

Hanging the phone up, she moved to the bed quickly and shook her husband. He let out a groan and opened his eyes. "W-What?" He saw Phoibe's worried expression and sat up. "Is it the baby?!"

She opened her mouth as she tried to piece together her words. "My boss called. He said pack everything important and go to the Vault. H-He sounded panicked, scared..."

Scott knew her boss. He was always a calm and collected man, nothing seemed to ever bother him and if he was worried, there was something to be worried about. "Get your things together." he said standing up, grabbing the baby book of names off his nightstand. Phoibe had picked it up when she got dinner the night before. "Get dressed and grab what you think is important." He kissed her quickly before digging out her suitcase and his duffel bag.

They both quickly got dressed and grab their things, Phoibe grabbing the books she had gotten from her parents, their photo albums, and only a few sets of outfits, she knew that the Vaults supplied jump suits. She zipped her suitcase up as Scott ran back in, his paramedic jacket on and zipped up and his duffel bag resting against his lower back with the strap across his chest. She ran over to him and grabbed his hand before they left to get in their car.

The second they ran outside, the sirens alerting the town of a nuclear attack or a tornado began blaring. Scott stopped as he debated. People would be panicking and getting into their cars and trying to escape, most likely towards Vault 76. It's construction and why it was constructed wasn't a secret in Flatwoods. "We need to run." he said making her look weird. "Honey, people are going to panic. Get in their cars...it'll be hard to get the car even close to the Vault!"

Phoibe looked down and exhaled in defeat. She knew he was right and nodded. They broke into a run, Phoibe having done it from time to time when Scott had the car for work and she needed to go to the Vault for a meeting. It would take them ten minutes. As they ascended the stairs when arriving, they saw several people arguing with Vault-Tec security outside. They were armed with guns.

"Stop!" said a guard as the two pushed their way through.

"I'm Dr. Phoibe Carter and my husband Scott, we're on the list." she rushed out making him look down.

Scott looked around the group, there was so many civilians in such a short period of time and she knew they would come here. He stood straight up as he realized that he be needed once if a Nuclear attack was happening. People would go into panic, people would be hurt, people would be dead, people would need the help of paramedics. He saw their neighbor Karen pushing her way through the crowd and he snatched up her hand as someone tried to push her back. 

"I wanted to say goodbye." she said to Scott as he looked over her shoulder. "I'm going to make a run for it into the woods. I saw you two leave the house and take off running, I knew something was wrong. I think a lot of people who saw you did cause they know who Phoibe works for..."

The guard confirmed the two were on the list as Scott turned to Phoibe. "I can't go." he said making his wife look at him with wide eyes. "Honey..." he took her face in his hands. "Listen to me. I love you, I love you more than anything on God's green earth but I can't go."

"I-I don't understand!"

Pressing his forehead to Phoibe's, her bit back the tears. "I need to do my job honey. You know how I'm dedicated to helping others and I know I need to be there for you, for my child but I need to make sure there's somewhere safe for you to come out of there too..."

She grabbed at his wrists, his hands against her cheeks. "We won't come out for twenty years." she whispered. "The baby..."

"I know, I know." he whispered. "You're going to take Karen with you."

That made the woman do a double take at her neighbor. "I'm sorry but Phoibe is taking me with her what? And wait did you say baby?!"

Phoibe smiled softly and nodded making Karen squeak and look down. She wanted to be excited about this but knew this was not the right moment to. "Take Karen. Go into the Vault. I will see you and kid in twenty years okay? I love you but I won't be of any use in there like I can be out here."

"Ma'am." spoke the guard making her look at him. "Is he coming or..."

"No. Karen Griffin is." spoke Scott pushing Karen forward. "I'm giving her my spot." He opened his duffle bag and passed her the baby book. "I circled names I liked and wrote the ones I really loved on the first page. I'm partical to Lyna if it's a girl. It's Lina but spelt with a Y instead of an I." He zipped the bag up and undid his jacket before passing it too her, she took it and hugged both items against her chest. "I love you Phoibe."

Pressing the jacket to her mouth, she exhaled as she tried to keep her composure. "I love you Scott."

Taking Phoibee's face in his hands, he gave her a quick but lingering kiss before breaking it and backing up with a smile on his face. "And I love that baby. So when I see our twenty some year old child and it's a girl, she better be named Lyna!"

The guard ushered Phoibe and Karen into the Vault opening as people yelled to be let in. She looked back and saw Scott smiling sadly at her, his eyes watering and he blew her a kiss before turning around to leave, disappearing into the crowd just before the two women were lead further into the crowd.

Phoibe touched her belly as held the suitcase, book, and jacket in her other hand. Karen squeezed her arm in comfort as she looked at her. Phoibe knew that this wasn't Karen's plan, Karen had always talked bout the plan she'd do if a nuclear attack happened. Run to the woods to an old house she knew off that had a bomb shelter and stay here. She had refurbished it, stocked it with food and water and now it was just sitting there. She felt her best friend kiss her shoulder and tears slid down her face.

Time to start the first day of the next twenty years inside Vault 76.

_Twenty-Five years later: October 22nd 2102_

"Lyna!" shouted a voice as twenty four year old Lyna Carter was walking out of her room. She saw her mother Phoibe by the cafeteria and she jogged over to it once realizing she was motioning to her.

"What's up ma?" she asked as she approached her.

46 year old Phoibe smiled at the sight of her daughter. When she was born, all she could hear was Scott telling her that she better be named Lyna and so she was. "Could you take the crates of Nuka Cola and go around to each room. The Overseer is trying to get some of the supplies dwindled before tonight and tomorrow. I mean I know you've been hording your Nuka-Cola Cherry for the past two weeks."

She scoffed at her mother's statement and smiled. "I like Nuka-Cola Cherry." She grabbed the crate. "So go to every room or..."

"Do our section first and go to section two. No need to go any further. If anything, the Overseer will have it put out during the party. She just didn't want extra." Lyna nodded as Phoibe kissed her head.

Each room, similar to a small apartment according to Phoibe, had doorbells on the panels. She went to every room and the third room she smiled at Vault Baby number two, Lyna was number one herself. Kathryn, her very best friend in this entire Vault, smiled at her and leaned against the door frame. "Sup?" she asked. She had dark brown curly almost wavy hair with some blonde highlights in it, brown eyes and, as she called it, a rich caramel skin tone. Kathryn was a beautiful woman. Anyone would two eyes could see that.

She held the crate out making Kathryn chuckle. "Overseer told mom to tell someone, who just happened to be me, to pass out some Nuka-Cola or it's all going to be put out at the party tonight. Overseer doesn't want extras."

Katheryn took a bottle of Nuka-Cola and smiled. "I'm surprised she was against us Vault babies making supply bags. Apparently they have it all set up."

"That's why us Vault babies, who have never been outside, decided to make bags for ourselves. It's why we've been taking notes during those meetings." she stated making Kathryn nod before reaching for a second with a raised brow. "I won't tell."

Kathryn took a second bottle and kissed Lyna's cheek before quickly smacking her ass as she walked away. Lyna yelped and playfully glared at Kathryn. She stopped by her room which was next door to Kathryn's and put a bottle of Nuka-Cola on her table by the door just to the right of her Pip-Boy case mounted on the wall. She spend the next half an hour, going around and trying to get people to take the Nuka-Cola, she felt like she was a sales woman trying to sell her product. Thankfully when she returned to the cafeteria, the crate only had about ten bottles left.

A hat was placed on her head and she hissed as the elastic snapped against the underside of her chin. "Mom!" Phoibe laughed as she saw her daughter's expression. She moved the hat so it was lopsided. "It's not even an hour away for the party yet and you're putting party hats on my head."

"It's cute." cooed her mother. "Do you wanna help or sit on your ass?"

"Wow." was all the 24 year old said at the statement. "Help I guess."

Lyna thought she'd be thrown into the kitchen to help cook but instead, she was going around with her mother and getting stuff to set up. They set up tables just outside the cafeteria and downstairs by their indoor soccer field. She was setting up the Nuka-Cola Dark on one of the folding tables in the cafeteria before putting more into a cooler with ice they managed to break into pieces from the freezer.

Looking over, she saw Phoibe setting out food. "Are we leaving together or...?"

Phoibe looked over at Lyna before sighing. "No sweetie. I've got to help the Overseer with something first and then we'll meet up somewhere. We'll discuss it tonight before you go to bed."

She bit back anything she wanted to truly say. Nobody wanted to pair up with her, Kathryn paired up with her boyfriend's team so she was one of those few that were leaving on her own. She just wished her mother would've been a yes. Noticing her daughter's silence, she looked over at her and pulled her into a hug with a groan. "I don't know outside, mom."

"I know you don't sweetie." she whispered as she held her in her arms. "We'l figure it out okay?" With a nod, Lyna went back to finish setting up. 

The Reclamation Day Party, which took place the night before the actual day, started at 9pm. Everyone was eating their last dinner in the vault or drinking more Nuka-Cola Dark than they should cause at least three people were passed out cold from drinking. Lyna hung out with her small little group of friends, call Vault Babies. Kathryn, her boyfriend Jake, his sister Jennifer (his twin actually), Jennifer's girlfriend Nora, Michael and David. All with their choice of Nuka-Cola, usually Lyna would drink but after one Nuka-Cola Dark, she was good for the night. She was one of the volunteers to clean up after the party tonight. The Overseer would be giving her speech about rebuilding america around 11:50pm and like every New Years Eve, they'd count down to midnight for Reclamation day.

Lyna knew a lot of people were worried, mainly those who knew what happened twenty five years ago. She and those born in Vault 76 were taught about the Great War and much of American History before that but they never lived it. They never heard the sirens go off that indicated a nuclear attack. They didn't feel the panic, shed the tears or clutch to their loved ones in fear. Instead they were born in the confines of this Vault. She had heard rumors about how the vault was suppose to open up five years ago but something happened, it causing them to remain an extra five years in safety. What had happened? The Vault babies weren't told. She and some others came to the conclusion that maybe the Overseer wished for the Dwellers to be more prepared.

She was brought out of her thoughts as a hand firmly smacked against her ass making her swat at Kathryn who busted out laughing before hugging her best friend. This would be their last night together and right now, she didn't want to let go of her best friend.

The Overseer got into the middle of the indoor soccer field, everyone either crowding around it or leaning over the railings of the upper level. She gave a speech about how it was their job to rebuild America, that they were America's last hope at normality. It went from that to how much she deeply cared for everyone in the vault and that she loved her family, sure it was sad they would be parting ways tomorrow but she believed everyone would succeed. Then the count down began, everyone that wasn't too drunk, counted down from 10 to 0. The moment the clock turned from 11:59pm to 12:00am, everyone busted out cheering and yelling Happy Reclamation Day.

It was around 12:30 when Lyna and those who stayed behind to clean up got to work as Security helped some people back to their rooms to go to sleep. Phoibe was helping and she looked towards Lyna who put the large trash bag into the trash and squished it down, the sound of bottles clanging together. It only took fifteen minutes thanks to everyone who stayed around and mainly cause the Overseer ordered them all back to their rooms to get sleep.

Phoibe hugged Lyna and kissed her cheek. "I love you sweetie."

"Love you too mom." she muttered against her before going into her room.

The moment the door shut, Phoibe sighed as she saw the light in her daughter's room turn off. Moving to her own room, she grabbed the pack bag she had sitting by the wall and hit the red button on the Pip-Boy display case, the glass raising and she pulled the device out to strap onto her left wrist, her right hand grabbing at the top to try and shake it but it sat firmly against her arm. She passed all the security who just nodded at her as they realized she was going to meet with the Overseer.

The Overseer looked at Phoibe as she approached her near the walkway that lead to the large gear door. "Did you say goodbye?"

"I said I love you. I'm not saying good bye...I'll find her after we do this." she spoke making the older woman nod.

The door hissed and the alarm started going off as the gear shaped door moved to the side and two Security officers went out first before them. Phoibe was glad they choose night time to leave cause she was pretty sure they would've had to adjusted their eye sight to the sunlight, instead they were greeted to the sight of stars in the sky. A breeze hitting them as they stood in front of the large open door. Phoibe exhaled, the air cool enough that her breath formed and lingered shortly in the air but not cool enough to make them seriously cold. She saw a letter on a post and walked by the Overseer.

Pulling it down from the post, ripping a part off but thankfully none of the words. She automatically recognize the handwriting...Scott's.

' _Dear Phoibe,_  
_I've been coming to the Vault every month for five years after it never opened in 2097. The first month I thought maybe I got my days mixed up but I hadn't. I wonder what happened but instead I worry that you and our child will never leave. If you do, I have left you a bag of supplies buried under a mattress at the coordinates I've marked bellow. Don't worry the location is near the Vault._  
_I hope to see you and our child soon._  
_I still love you._  
_I will always love you._

 _Love, Scott._ '

"Overseer..." the woman walked over and looked over the letter, she was told by Security the day the Bombs dropped why Scott Carter never arrived but a Karen Griffin did.

With a sigh, she nodded. "Find it, quickly."

"I want to put the note in Lyna's mailbox. I don't need it but she might."

"You've got twenty minutes."

Phoibe opened her Pip-Boy and followed the coordinates to a structure, it was very shack like and had three levels. She saw a mattress in the semi open room on the bottom and lifted it up and used her hand to dig bellow it until she saw the green of a duffle bag she knew so well. She sat it down and ran back into the Vault, confusing Security as she ran by. Phoibe used her access code to Lyna's room to open the door and grabbed a pen off her table to mark the location, describe what the place looked like before peaking into Lyna's bedroom to see her daughter fast asleep, her Vault Suit draped over the chair her guitar sat against. She moved over and kissed her daughter on the temple as she used one hand to pull Lyna's hair back over her shoulder, away from her face. "I promise to find you again okay?" she whispered before looking at the paper and writing down on it that once Phoibe finished the mission, she'd return to Flatwoods and wait for Lyna. Folding the paper up, she opened the mailbox and saw the last Vault 76 newspaper already inside and sat the paper on it before leaving the Vault for the second but final time.

The Overseer was just staring up at the sky when she walked out, Phoibe couldn't blame her. They hadn't seen the sky in twenty-five years while the children have never seen it. She prayed the weather would be good during the day because they deserved to see the world on a bright and sunny day. "Ready?" she asked, Phoibe nodded and followed the Overseer down the stairs to venture into the West Virginia Wastes. Neither of them knowing that someone watched them leave the Vault, a Vault that someone knew had been closed their entire two years living in West Virginia.

The next morning, Lyna rubbed at her eyes as she rolled onto her back and turned her head towards the alarm clock to see she had slept in by half an hour. She jumped out of bed and took a quick shower, she washed her hair and body before standing in front of her sink brushing her teeth. She wanted to get up at 7:30am but apparently her body wanted to sleep thirty minutes more. Lyna put on a pair of clean underwear and a clean bra before sliding on a pair of shorts she wore under her Vault Suit and slid on a tank top as she gathered her toothbrush and two boxes of toothpaste. Exiting her bathroom, she saw Kathryn walking into the room.

"You sleep in?" asked Kathryn as she stretched, a small groan leaving her best friend.

"Yeah. It's fine. We Vault Babies all agreed to meet at the door around 9. I just wanted to be up." she stated as she put her stuff into a plastic baggy she had managed to get from the cafeteria. "Does Jake and his group have any plans about where you're going?"

Kathryn shrugged as she watched Lyna. "Something about just heading East. I don't know. Where are you heading?"

Lyna rolled the baggy up and stuck it into the front pocket of the backpack that the Overseer had passed out roughly two weeks ago, they were blue with yellow trimming and had 76 in the same material as that on the back of the Vault Suits on the front of the backpack. "Flatwoods." she answered. "Going to go see if my dad is still there."

The 23 year old nodded as she watched the first Vault baby slid her legs into the Vault suit before zipping it up and tuck the zipper away. "I'm going to miss you."

Lyna looked up at Kathryn real quick as she sat down on the edge of her bed."I'll miss you too." she answered as she slid on the standard brown leather boots all of them wore in the vault. "But it's not like we're leaving the state. We can visit one another again."

Kathryn nodded as she started playing the necklace she had around her neck. Playing with it was a telltale sign she was upset. Lyna tssked and stood up, grabbing at her best friend's arms. "I should go with you." quickly spoke the brunette making Lyna sigh and rub at her arm. "I should just tell Jake I want to go with you. You'll be alone."

"I'll handle it." Lyna quickly retorted. "I'm going to Flatwoods. If I'm lucky I'll find my dad...I'll be fine."

They stood there in silence before Kathryn hugged Lyna tightly as if if she let her go, she'd disappear for ever. Using a hand to pull Kathryn's bushy hair away, Lyna kissed her forehead and returned the hug. Her friend kissed her cheek before backing away and smiling sadly at her. Once Kathryn left Lyna's room, the 24 year old exhaled and rubbed at her eyes. She straightened her back and let out a shaky breath.

She took her blue with yellow trimmed fleece blanket and folded it up before placing it into her backpack with the rest of the things she had packed early in the morning the day before. She opened the side pocket, putting her hair ties and chap stick into it before grabbing the Nuka-Cola brand water bottle into the space on the other side of the backpack. She grabbed the neck of her guitar and put it over her back, it's strap going across her chest before she grabbed the guitar picks an older man in the vault made her once learning she picked up the instrument. She put them into a smaller front pocket of her backpack before leaving her room.

Walking into the main room, she pressed the button on the case holding the Pip-Boy. The case lifted up and she placed the device onto her left wrist before securing it in place. She opened the door and stepped out before looking back into her room. She ran through a checklist in her head quickly. She had her five Nuka-Cola Cherries in her backpack with her two boxes of Sugar Bomb, two spare Vault Suits, every bra and pair of panties she owned nestled with them, her hair brush having been put in the same pocket as her toothbrush and toothpaste, she had the small book of photos her mother put together over the past years, and had the last few issues of the Vault's newspaper tucked away. She looked towards her mailbox, knowing the Vault was releasing one last issue.

Opening the box, Lyna knit her brows together as she saw a piece of paper resting on top of the newspaper and looked at it. Her mother's handwriting was along side hand writing she didn't know but the name at the end of the letter told her who it was. It was her father. Lyna sat her backpack on the ground and unzipped it to slip the new issue and folded paper into her bag. She'd followed the directions on the paper after she said her goodbyes to every Vault Baby.

With a sigh, she put the bag over her shoulder and followed the Vault Boy standing cutouts she remembered watching Security put up before she went to bed. She grabbed the purified water that was offered to her by one of the Vault robots, along with a bag of supplies to build, Stimpaks and Radaway, and lastly her C.A.M.P. device. She was surprised at how many C.A.M.P.s were stacked up behind the cardboard stand but after all every person in the Vault got one C.A.M.P. regardless of being in a group or not. She stopped just before exiting the Vault to put her new found items away into her bag, her mother made sure she knew how to properly pack it so every bit of space would be utilized. Granted, her blanket could be held outside the backpack but straps but it was a fleece blanket, not a sleeping bag, she didn't want it getting wet. Grabbing her items, she walked to the door and stepped through the gear shaped opening before flinching as the sunlight was way more brighter than she originally anticipated.

Lyna wasn't the only one outside, there were older men and women looking around while speaking to one another about what they were seeing. Kathryn was one of the first Vault Babies to arrive where Lyna was waiting. She had chosen to lean against the railings as she looked over the landscape. Trees had green, orange, and yellow leaves and the crisp morning air made her cheeks a tad pink. "Wow." was all Kathryn could say as she approached Lyna. "I didn't expect this."

"Those guys over there mentioned they could tell it has been in ruins for the past twenty-five years but..." she shook her head as she stared out at the scenery in front of them, Lyna using her upper body strength to hoist herself off the ground a bit by the railing, her feet a few inches off the ground as she leaned forward a bit. "I don't know what it was like before. The twelve years olds think I do but..."

"You were born eight months after the events of the War, I know." answered her bestie.

They stood there in silence, just staring out over the trees as they waited for all the Vault babies came out. The older ones hugged one another, Jake promising Lyna he'd take good care of Kathryn when he hugged her. The kids under the age of 16, went off into whatever groups their guardians. Kathryn gave Lyna one last hug before leaving with Jake and his group. Several other Dwellers, mainly those who gained access into the Vaults the day the bombs dropped, hung around the front of the Vault and were talking among themselves. She did know a group of senior citizens, the oldest being 84 years old, decided to build a settlement near the Vault.

Pulling the folded piece of paper out of her bag, she looked at it and read what her father had written for Phoibe before reading Phoibe's notes. She found the shack easily and the mattress, digging it out to find the duffle bag. Scott's name written across the strap in black marker. She filled the hole back up, put the strap over her shoulder and looked out over West Virginia. She rose her arm up and switched her Pip-Boy onto the radio station, smiling as the heard the song Country Roads playing.

Lyna ran a hand through her hair and began making her way towards Flatwoods, having learned the direction from her mother two days ago. Time to start her life outside of a Vault she lived in for the past twenty-four years. Time to find her father if he was still alive but most importantly, in her mind, it was time to go home.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote up 95% of this before I got a chance to do the Beta but I think I managed.

_October 25th 2102_

It had only been two days since she left the safety of Vault 76. She had come across the Overseer's C.A.M.P. and four other Dwellers she knew. A couple in their fifties, Isaac and Nicole with their daughter Kendra and her best friend Bruce. They were almost too happy to see her, maybe it was just seeing another Dweller. Isaac stating they saw some hostiles the way they originally planned on going but decided to turn around. She stayed with them the two days, helping them set up their base at the Overseer's C.A.M.P. until they decided what to do next.

She left the morning of October 25th, leaving them a note stating she needed to go. She didn't touch the supplies in the duffel bag, hell she never even went through it yet but figured she'd do it when she got to Flatwoods. The Overseer and Phoibe left them supplies in a container with the words "Dwellers" written on a piece of wood beside the box. She walked for about an hour before seeing the Church in Flatwoods. 

Approaching the white building, it obviously had seen betters day, she saw a logo on a sign just outside. It was a blue shield with a circle, outlined in red with a white filling, a red heart in the middle of the circle and what looked like a heartbeat line going right across the heart. She stepped into the church and saw several dead bodies, flinching a bit as she stared at them. She sat her backpack down and dug out the photo of her parents on their wedding day, she looked at every dead body before realizing none of them were her father. So her father was possibly still alive.

She found a holotape laying on the desk with the Overseer's hand writing on it. She popped the holotape into her Pip-Boy as she sat down at the desk near the door. The Overseer spoke about how this group was called the Responders but nobody was alive when they arrived. That it would be best if anyone listening to the holotape wanted to use the equipment in the area had to go and sign up at the volunteer kiosk across the street. Lyna sucked at her teeth and debated whether to take the holotape with her or not. She choose not too, if any other dwellers came this way then they deserved to hear what the Overseer had to say.

Ejecting the holotape, Lyna placed it back in the same position it was in before drumming her fingers against the table top. She stood up and stopped as she saw a holotape still in the computer but remembering what the Overseer said, she'd need to volunteer to use the equipment. How exactly did that work? Was she given a password or something as soon as she did? She sat her things down by the desk and jogged across towards the building the Overseer mentioned, it looked as though it had functioned as a restaurant...or was a tavern a better term? 

There was two computers against a wall with a piece of wood painted with 'Self-Registration' with the circle part of Responders' logo between the two arrows, one pointing at each computer. Approaching the computer, she tapped on it and filled in the necessary information.

Full name: Lyna Carter  
Age: 24  
Gender: Female  
Birthday: June 1st 2078  
Blood Type: O+ (she had to think about that one for a minute)  
Specialty: Hydroponics

That was all that was required. Granted it was simple but anyone could join really. She was given a password, a bunch of numbers and letters. She grabbed a piece of paper and a pen from the counter between the computers and wrote down the password before going back to the church. She sat down and typed her name into the username box, last than first name apparently, and then the password. She automatically ejected the holotape and saw it said ' _Scott's Survivor Diary_ '. A survivor diary? What number was this one? How many more did Scott have and where could she find them? Checking the top right drawer, she saw a bunch of paper and what looked like files. They were most likely of some patients they had. The bottom right had Stimpacks, Rad-X, and Radaway inside.

She took one of each, she didn't want to deplete what they had. The top left had blank paper, pens, and pencils but the bottom left had numerous holotapes. She fingered through them but came to the conclusion after seeing nothing written on them that they were blank holotapes and chewed on her bottom lip. She took five of them out and looked back at the computer. She opened up the requests tab and typed something out. 

' _10/25/2102: Comment from Lyna_

_I'm a new Volunteer, I took five blank holotapes, one Stimpak, one Rad-X, and one Radaway. I don't know how long I'll be here but I'll help anyone I can, everyone else is either gone or dead._

_My name is Lyna Carter. I hope someone is reading this, I hope my father is reading this._ '

She saved the entry and took some paper out of the top left drawer and a pen before sitting on the floor with her back against the desk as she opened the duffel bag to make a list of items. Opening it, she saw a book laying on top of everything and took it out, an empty journal. Turns out she didn't need the paper after all, she did keep the pen on her as she went through the duffel bag. She pulled out an actual sleeping bag, rolled up and tied with what looked like a leather belt. She wrote it down in the journal before counting out the Nuka-Colas in the duffel bag, another six with her current five and there was about five cans of purified water. She had a few boxes of BlamCo Mac & Cheese, Instamash, and Sugar Bombs, roughly about three each. Seeing a tin box, she sat the pen in the book as she lifted it out. Lyna opened the box and saw several Nuka-Cola bottle caps inside. Okay what? She rose a brow as she saw a piece of paper taped to the inside of the lid. 'New Currency. You've got six hundred caps.'

"Caps. How many fucking caps sit in Vault seventy-six right now?" she asked as she shook the tin a bit. There's a gold mine in there but by now, the Vault was closed and there was no way in. She saw something blue peak between the caps and reached in, pushing caps aside to pull out a Responders patch. It was obviously handmade but well made. "Okay." She smiled as she closed the tin.

She packed her things back into the duffel bag before zipping it closed. She moved over to the dead bodies and searched the one on the ground. She found a small bag of caps, a sharpening stone, and pulled the welding goggles off her head. Sure she felt horrible but it wasn't like the woman was using it anymore. She went to the woman on the stretcher and found a holotape on her labeled ' _Survivor Story: Dassa_ '. Once Lyna found a safe place for the night, she'd listen to her father's and Dassa's. 

Grabbing her bags, tucking away the items she got off the dead bodies, she came her way out of the church and turned down the road to the right of the church. She needed to find somewhere safe, her eyes moving over every building, silently wondering which one her mother and father had lived in before the war but she wouldn't know until her mother came to meet up with her or if she found her father and he showed her. Shaking her head, she decided to go down the road that Agricultural Research Center was on and just see where she'd end up.

Not wanting to run into anything hostile, once off the bridge, she hugged the treeline in case she had to run into it. She walked down the road for about ten minutes when she saw a house. An actual house on the side of the road, alone with no other houses around. She walked up to it slowly, mainly cause she didn't know if anyone was home. She pushed the door open, it wasn't locked so that was sort of a good sign. Entering the house, she looked around and saw it looked like as if someone had lived there but there was nobody here now. Maybe it was abandoned.

She opened a door and saw a bathtub, with a shower curtain pulled to the side. Out of curiosity, she turned the knobs and was actually surprised when she saw water coming out of the faucet. Almost instantly, she turned the middle knob for the water to move to the shower head and put her hand under it. It was actual hot water. Hot. Fucking. Water. Two days of living at the Overseer's camp, sleeping on the ground with her blanket had her feeling all dirty and grimy. Chewing on her bottom lip, Lyna debated whether to strip down and shower or not. What if the house wasn't abandoned? What if the owner came home and found her naked in their shower? Could she manage to talk them down if they had a gun? A hot shower though. That's all she wanted right now.

"Fuck it." she said setting her things down and unzipping her Vault suit. She draped it over the sink before pulling the rest of her clothes off, laying each layer of clothing on top of the vault suit in the sink before undoing her Pip-Boy and setting it on top of her backpack. She jumped into the shower and almost moaned in pleasure as the hot water hit her, she used one hand to pull the curtain closed as she ducked her head under the water and just let it pour over her as her eyes closed.

Opening her right eye, she saw a container of what looked like shampoo. She looked at it and put a small amount, like a real small amount into her hands. She lathered her hands up and began running them through her hair, soaping her hair up. She released a small sigh when she felt something press against her lower back through the curtain. "Why do I have a naked person in my shower?" asked a woman's voice.

Fuck...it wasn't an abandoned house. "I...uh..." she swallowed as she shook her head, making her hair move. "I thought the house was abandoned."

"Why?"

"Nobody is alive in the town so I thought..."

The gun pressed firmer and she straightened up. "Don't. I want you to turn the water off." Lyna reached forward and used both hands to turn the water off before a towel was tossed over the top of the rod, it landing on Lyna's head. "Dry off or wrap up."

She flattened the towel and shook her hair out before wrapping it around herself. "Okay..." The curtain was yanked aside and Lyna saw the woman who had a gun on her. Blonde hair, blue eyes, older than herself but not too much older, maybe between ten to thirteen years. She rubbed at her arm as she looked at the woman. "I'm sorry."

"Get dressed..." she stated. "Where's your clothes?" Lyna pointed and she looked only to raise a brow. She could see the blue and yellow jumpsuit. "You're a Vault Dweller. You come from the one just outside Flatwoods? Seventy-six?" Lyna nodded as she swallowed thickly, the woman was making her a little nervous. The gun was eventually lowered. "Get dressed then come to the kitchen." she ordered before leaving the bathroom and shutting the door behind her.

There was no way to stop Lyna's racing heart. She didn't expect to be held at gunpoint but she was in someone's home so it sort of made sense. She dropped the towel and quickly replaced her clothes on, slipping her feet into her boots but not bothering to zip up her jumpsuit any further than just below her breasts. She quickly secured her Pip-Boy to her left wrist and grabbed her things.

Entering the kitchen, she saw the woman sitting at the kitchen table with her gun laying in front of her. "Look I am really sorry, nobody was in Flatwoods so I assumed, maybe I shouldn't have assumed."

"No shit." she stated. "Coming home to find a naked woman in my shower wasn't exactly my plan for the day." Running a hand through her blonde hair, she huffed. "I don't trust you but I trust you enough that I won't put a bullet in you."

"Thank you?" she squeaked out.

The blonde stared at Lyna before drumming her fingers against the surface of the table. "You said Flatwoods?" A nod was her answer. "Fine, do me a favor and I'll give you one. I need samples of the river water in Flatwoods including a water report from the church those Responders set up in."

Lyna knew the report she was talking about, she vaguely remembered looking at it. It was more like her eyes just grazed over it as she stood up from the desk. "How do I take the samples?"

A small bag was passed towards her. "Glass vials, fill each one with water up to the line I have marked on them with tape. Make sure each vial is secured before putting them back into the bag."

Taking the bag, she could hear the sound of glass clinking together. She hooked it to the belt she got from Isaac, he had put it together with pouches on it for her. "Right, so I do this and..."

"You get a favor in return. Don't fuck this up Vaultie, I don't usually let random strangers I just met handle my valuable equipment."

"Can I know your name?"

A brow rose at the statement. "If you make it back. You can leave your stuff."

The 24 year old let out a huff and looked at her stuff. She had no weapon if something attacked her but she'd figure it out. "Fine. I'll be back." The woman just shrugged while looking unimpressed, as if she didn't believe Lyna and that irked her.

Leaving the house, she made a beeline back down the road, hugging the treeline so she could dart into the woods if she saw anyone. She just decided to avoid the road, she didn't want to bother with other people. How would she explain to a fellow Vault Dweller that she was playing errand girl for someone who held a pistol against her back and could have shot her? She went into the church and used the terminal behind the robot merchant to print out a copy of the water report. She didn't bother reading it, instead she folded it up and put it into one of the small pouches Isaac had made.

The river wasn't that hard to find, just go the way she originally went to get to the lady's house, she stepped down to the river bank. She opened the bag as she crouched beside the river, pulling a glass vial out to inspect it. The tape was around the middle of each vial. She uncorked it and dipped it into the water, checking it twice before getting it to where she wanted.

A gunshot went off making her scream in surprise. She almost fell into the river by surprise but a hand seized up the back of her Vault suit and her tank top underneath to keep her from falling in. "Had a mongrel dog sneaking up on you." spoke a voice. A familiar voice. Not her mother, not that lady from the house she barged into, but the voice of the woman her father gave his spot too. She turned her head and saw the face of Karen, her godmother. "Hello Lyna."

With a tug, Lyna fell on her ass beside the river and looked up at Karen. "Auntie Karen!" she smiled.

The 46 year old woman crouched down and kissed Lyna's forehead. "What are you doing all by yourself? Collecting river water?"

"Helping someone out." she stated before carefully placing the filled vial away and grabbing another one. More like helping someone out for a favor of her own.

"Figures. Saw your name in the directory and thought I was going crazy." chuckled Karen as she used her middle finger, yes her middle finger, to push her glasses further up her nose. "If you got nowhere to go, you can stay at the church with me."

Did she have anywhere to go? Probably not. "I'll figure it out." smiled the 24 year old as she filled up the rest of the vials.

The older woman pursed her lips as she watched Lyna for the duration of the next five minutes, probably making sure nothing snuck up on her. Once Lyna closed the small bag and stood up, she passed her a knife. "Not much but you need a form of protection."

A combat knife. Small but over all would be effective. She took it from Karen and hugged her with a small groan. "Thanks." she whispered, feeling a kiss pressed against her temple before backing away.

"Remember. The offer still stands. I'm trying to keep the place going while the Responders are away..." informed Karen as Lyna nodded.

With a smile, she turned around and went into the woods to get back to the lady's house. She looked at the knife Karen gave her, even gave her the sheath and strap with it. She slid the blade out and looked at it, dragging her thumb across it to see it was indeed sharp. She hooked the knife to her belt and stepped out into the clearing. Looking at it, she could do so much with her C.A.M.P. if the woman let her set up here. All the clearing had was the house itself and what looked like to be a barn off in the distance a bit but she could be wrong. As she approached the steps leading up to the porch, the door opened.

Lyna stopped as she saw the woman lean against the door frame, holding what looked like to be a cup of...well something hot cause she could see the steam. "Get my samples and the paper?"

"Yeah." she answered pulling the bag off and opening a pouch to pull out the folded up paper.

The woman moved to the seat just outside the door and sat her cup on the small table beside it before taking the items from her. "You've got blood on your shoulder." informed the woman making Lyna freak out and spin around while trying to look at it herself. "Blood splatter actually."

"Oh...yeah a fellow Vault Dweller saw, what she called, a mongrel dog sneaking up on me and she shot it."

With a small noise of what Lyna would assume was curiosity as the woman took out a vial, she gave a small smile. "Explains the gunshot I heard." Lyna had no idea how to answer that so instead just nodded and clapped her hands together as she rocked back and forth on her heels. "Olivia."

"E-Excuse me?"

Their eyes locked and Lyna swallowed thickly. Why the fuck was her heart going so fast? "Olivia is my name. What's your Vaultie?"

What was with the Vaultie? "Lyna. With a Y, not an I."

Placing the vial back into the bag, she leaned forward as she looked at the younger woman. "When was the last time you ate?"

Shit. When was the last time she ate? She knit her brows together as she thought. "Last night...around eight at night I think and it's..." she opened her Pip-Boy and frowned. "Six in the afternoon."

Olivia stood up and held the door open, motioning for Lyna to come inside. The girl walked up the stairs and went into the house before Olivia followed. She watched as the woman tapped the table top as she passed it, the young woman sitting down nervously. A favor for a favor, that's what she had to keep telling herself. The fridge opened and she watched the older woman pull out some food before turning her stove on.

"How do you have power?" she asked making Olivia look back at her.

"Generator. I managed to rework it, it runs on wood." she spoke as she grabbed a pan and sat it on the burner to let it heat up. "I'll make you some radstag meat."

Knitting her brows together, she looked very confused. "What's a radstag?"

The blonde unwrapped a piece of meat and sighed as she grabbed a knife. "Two headed deer, the radiation from the bombs caused numerous animals to mutate. Radstags are mostly skittish but if you're quiet, you can hunt them."

Lyna just nodded and remained quiet as she listened to the sounds of Olivia moving around; cutting the food up and then cooking it in the pan. She wished she had a notebook to write everything down that Olivia told her but instead she would just have to try and remember it. After twenty minutes, a plate was placed in front of of her with radstag meat cut up into bite sized pieces and what looked like noodles. She took the fork almost instantly and ate, she didn't realize until asked when she last ate, just how hungry she was.

The older woman sat across from her and leaned back in the chair as she watched Lyna. "Look at me." Lyna looked up at her with the fork sticking out of her mouth. "I'll let you stay here, in exchange I require you to run errands for me and such."

"The place only has one bed..."

"I have a couch." quickly answered Olivia. "You can have it, unpack your things. Just don't make a huge mess, I don't like messes."

The 24 year old nodded. "Okay, I can agree to that."

"If you prove to be trustworthy, I might figure out a better sleeping situation for you but the couch is comfortable."

Lyna put some meat and noodles into her mouth as she looked down. She knew it would be better than sleeping with her blanket on the cold and dirty ground again. She nodded and took another bite of her food when a bottle was slid across the table, her hand quickly moving to catch it. Ice cold Nuka-Cola. "Can I keep the cap?" she asked making Olivia nod.

After finishing her meal, she moved her things to the couch and unpacked her backpack. She pulled the sleeping bag out of the duffel bag and laid it out on the couch, unzipping it so if she got cold, she could use it and her fleece blanket. Olivia placed a pillow on it for her and the younger woman smiled at her. Pulling her boots off, she laid down on the couch and and felt her body relax. So much more comfortable than the ground outside. Olivia moved to the living room and drew the shades closed before starting a fire in the fireplace.

"It gets cold during the night. During the day, it reaches to around eighty or ninety but at night it feels like it's dropped below forty." informed Olivia as Lyna rolled over onto her side to watch her. The blonde blew on the embers to make the fire grow before tossing some good size logs into the fireplace. "I'll check on it before I go to bed, you look as if you're about to fall asleep."

Lyna hummed as her eyelids felt heavy. She and Isaac did watch when she stayed the two days with them, so she didn't get good sleep. She was lucky if she slept more than four hours when it was her turn. She undid her Pip-Boy and sat it down on the table before closing her eyes, hearing the sounds of outside and Olivia moving around. Eventually she fell asleep into a rather deep sleep, not waking up when Olivia came by once in a while to check the fire.

It wasn't until 5:40am when she woke, she stretched and rolled onto her back as she pulled her blanket up to her chin. All she wanted to do was sleep more but she could feel the dull throbbing in her temples that indicated she was getting a headache. She looked to see that the fire had pretty much died, her eyes caught a book laying on the table and she sat up with a small groan. She pulled the paper off the top of it, it must've been Olivia's handwriting cause she was sure nobody broke in to leave her a note.

' _Vaultie,_  
_Use this journal to document what you want. You're extremely inexperienced to what's outside the Vault so here's an idea; use it to write about creatures and various things or use it as a journal. I actually don't care what you use it as, I'm just suggesting things. It's your journal now._  
_~Olivia_ '

__"Vaultie?" she whispered before rubbing at her right temple. "Why does she keep calling me Vaultie?" She stood up and and made her way to the bathroom, undoing her Vault suit as she entered and shut the door._ _

__She did her business and washed her hands, trying her hardest to stay away as she stood in front of the mirror. Exiting the bathroom, while putting her arms back into her vault suit, she saw the door to the only bedroom wide open. Lyna saw Olivia laying asleep in her bed but with her back towards the door, her wood stove crackling lightly as the fire was dying down. It was pretty early and since she was asleep herself, she had no idea when Olivia laid down to go to sleep. She tugged her zipper up to just below her breasts and went into the living room, pulling her boots on before placing her Pip-Boy back onto her arm and latching it into place. She opened her duffel bag and pulled out a bottle of Nuka-Cola before grabbing the journal and heading outside, shutting the screen door only instead of the main door._ _

__Opening the bottle, she set the cap down on the table and took a long drink from it. Knowing the caffeine would help at least dampen her headache before crossing her legs and propping the journal in her lap, Olivia had been kind enough to put a pen on the inside of the lid. She uncapped it and saw Olivia had already taken the time to write 'Belongs to Lyna' inside the cover. She wrote the current date in the right top corner of the first page, it being October 26th now, and she just wrote. She got five pages worth of thoughts down when the door opened beside her._ _

__"Did you eat?" groaned out Olivia, her voice thick with sleep as she rubbed at one of her eyes._ _

__"I had a Nuka-Cola."_ _

__"That's not..." she sighed heavily and looked annoyed. "What did you eat for breakfast in the vault?"_ _

__Lyna made a noise and shrugged. "I rarely ate breakfast, my mother had to force me to sit down and eat sugar bombs from time to time. I usually just skipped my breakfast."_ _

__Olivia rubbed at her face before groaning. She walked back into the house and Lyna heard her moving around her kitchen. "You're eating breakfast." she spoke from the kitchen. "Even if it's just a bowl of sugar bombs with Brahman milk."_ _

__"Alright." answered the Vault Dweller, closing her journal and grabbing her half empty bottle of Nuka-Cola. She stepped back into the kitchen and saw the older woman place a bowl on the table, full of sugar bombs and milk. She took the spoon and slowly ate her cereal. Hands grabbed her hair and she rose a brow as her head was almost roughly tilted back. "Ow!"_ _

__"Hush." was all Olivia said as she separated her hair into three sections and began braiding them together. She held a hair tie lightly between her lips before securing it at the bottom. "Your hair was almost going into the bowl, I'd prefer it if you kept your hair out of food you're eating." She rubbed her thumb against some of the braid. "And a braid suits you. Finish your food."_ _

__The young woman wouldn't admit it out loud but this Brahman milk tasted very differently from the milk they had inside the vault but they mainly had powdered milk, they didn't have a source of milk. They had a small section of animals but they were chickens only, the Vault had steaks and other various meats stored in it. The milk in the bowl tasted better than the milk she tasted in the vault and she hated milk._ _

__She finished the sugar bombs, the ones near the bottom had grown soggy but she ate them, and tipped the bowl to drink the rest of the milk. She saw Olivia move to the sink and turn the water on to start cleaning the dishes. "Can I go scavenging?" she asked._ _

__"How old are you?"_ _

__Lyna looked confused for a second. "Uh...twenty-four."_ _

__"Then why are you asking permission as if I'm your parent?" inquired Olivia._ _

__Licking her lips, mainly to erase any remnants of milk and sugar bombs, she looked down at the bowl. "It's your house, I thought I'd ask..."_ _

__The blonde moved over and took her bowl and spoon away. "You may go scavenging. You may do as you wish, as long as you don't inconvenience or endanger me." She ran the bowl under the water before sighing. "And tell me where you play on going. Just in case."_ _

__"I just want to go to Flatwoods."_ _

__"Okay...if you see anything that might be of use to me, bring it home." she spoke. "I can use anything really, I've used parts from a toy truck. In the closet by the door is a shopping basket, take it with you and fill it up with what you think I could use."_ _

__Lyna nodded and stood up, she moved over to where her backpack was and unloaded it. She put her items into the duffel bag, that she had sitting beside the couch, and put her journal into it before grabbing the knife that Karen gave her. She opened the closet and took the basket before running at Olivia, she kissed her cheek making the older woman groan and swat at her as the girl moved quickly. She ran out the front door and took off down the road towards Flatwoods. She passed the Agricultural Research Center, crossed the bridge and ran for the entrance of the church when arms wrapped around her and yanked her into the building._ _

__"What the..."_ _

__A hand smacked over her mouth and she saw Karen holding her there. "Shh...shh...I saw something I don't know." She pulled Lyna with her to the stairwell, both climbing it and going to the very top, having to cross through the upper part to reach the second stairs and Karen pointed._ _

__Lyna saw what looked like large horned lizards. She opened her backpack and pulled her notebook out, carefully sketching out what she was staring at on a blank page. "You don't know what they are?"_ _

__"No, I saw the larger one rip a two headed cow apart though when finding Isaac and Nicole, they set up at the motel down the road. I ran back here and saw you on the bridge." she answered._ _

__Lyna sighed and wrote ' _Ask Olivia_ ' up in the top right corner of the page before closing the journal. "One looks like a baby." That one looked almost snow white. An Albino maybe? They disappeared over the ridge and Lyna sighed. "You need any help here today?"_ _

__"I could use it. I've buried half the dead bodies I found but it's hard on my own." she stated making Lyna nod. "Also I managed to get in contact with a Lance over at the Morgantown airport, your dad is out of state right now." The 24 year old looked at Karen with wide eyes. "He'll be back with in the next week." She hugged Karen and nodded making her godmother chuckle and rub her back. "You'll see him eventually kiddo."_ _

__The two moved the bodies and dug graves until night fell. Karen had set up a few lanterns but had their Pip-Boy lights on as they buried the last of the bodies, having found out who they were by their location in the people directory in the terminal located in the church. Lyna had made them up grave stones and hammered it into the ground when she heard a noise. The two Vault Dwellers tensed up and Lyna looked over her shoulder to see Olivia standing there._ _

__She was holding the filled basket, which Lyna filled up when locating the bodies. "You weren't back yet so I got a little worried." spoke the blonde and Lyna felt her heart hammer a bit, why did that make her feel giddy?_ _

__Karen stabbed the ground with her shovel and rose a brow. "I'm sorry? Who are you?" she asked, seeming defensive as she angled herself in front of Lyna._ _

__"Stop." sighed Lyna. "She's letting me stay at her house."_ _

__The older blonde just rose a brow but stepped aside while pushing her glasses back up her nose with her middle finger, it making Olivia scowl. "I always push my glasses up with my middle finger, I'm not insulting you. Ask the kid."_ _

__The younger woman rolled her eyes and moved to grab her backpack. "Are we good?" Karen nodded as she flattened out the mound of dirt on the last grave. "Alright, I'll stop by tomorrow."_ _

__"See ya kid." she said, leaning over to kiss Lyna's cheek before the black haired woman approached Olivia._ _

__The two turned and made their way out of Flatwoods, Olivia looking through the stuff Lyna had gathered for her as Lyna fished out her journal and openedi to the page. "What are these?" she asked making Olivia look over and take one side of the journal to look._ _

__"Deathclaws. Try and avoid them." She watched as Lyna took her pen and wrote Deathclaws beneath where she saw Lyna's note to ask her was. "There are different types of Deathclaws but if there was a baby among them, then the mother will kill anything in it's way to protect it. Even the smallest of creature." She watched as Lyna drew a skull at the top of the page with the word ' _Avoid_ ' beneath the skull._ _

__The rest of the walk to Olivia's was quiet. Olivia inspecting some objects as Lyna looked up at the sky, her hands holding onto the straps of her backpack. Approaching the front door, Lyna stepped aside and let the older woman inside first before following. She emptied her bag, setting the two Nuka-Colas she found for herself on the counter with a box of Fancy Lad Snack Cakes._ _

__Olivia went right to her workshop, not before tossing a towel at Lyna, silently telling her that she needed a bath. The young woman chuckled and grabbed her towel before entering the bathroom and stripping down. She sat her Pip-Boy on the counter and switched it to the radio station as she turned the hot water on. Once stripping down, she noticed the dirt had left a layer of grime on her exposed skin, thank god for that Vault Suit. She undid her braid and sat the hair tie down before stepping into the bathtub._ _

__The door opened almost as soon as she closed the curtain. "Taking your clothes and washing them." informed Olivia. "I found a pair of clothes in your bag, so I'll put them on the sink."_ _

__"Okay. Thanks." she answered but before she even got her thanks out, the door shut. "Right..."_ _

__Shaking her head, she took some of the shampoo and lathered her hair up but this time scrubbing in case there was dirt from burying the bodies residing in her hair. The hot water cascading over her scrubbed at her hair, her eyes shut as she felt her muscles relax under the hot water. She quickly washed her body and turned the water off once all the suds were washed away. She grabbed the towel and sat on the edge of the tub as she dried off, her eyes closing as she shook her hair out._ _

__She redressed into the shorts and tank top that Olivia had found in her bag before tossing the towel away into the basket she learned had dirty clothes or towels in it. She walked out to the living room and sat down on the couch with a grunt as Olivia moved around in her kitchen. Olivia walked over with a bowl of soup and passed it too her, the young woman raising an eyebrow at it._ _

__"It's diced radstag meat with noodles and I made the broth."_ _

__"So like chicken noodle soup back in the vault but with...radstag meat?" she asked looking at Olivia._ _

__"Exactly. Eat."_ _

__Lyna didn't really use her spoon that the other woman gave her, she just sort of drank the broth and got some of the meat and noodles into her mouth to chew. The 37 year old shook her head and went to make herself a bowl, eating it at the dinner table while looking over her notes. She looked over and saw Lyna had fallen asleep sitting up, the bowl sitting on the coffee table._ _

__Chewing her food, she stood up from the chair and moved over to Lyna. She eased her down onto the couch. "Did you even do a lot in the Vault?" she huffed out as she put a pillow under Lyna's head. She undid the Pip-Boy, turning it off and setting it onto the table before taking Lyna's fleece blanket and cover her up with it. She tucked a strand of damp hair behind the girl's ear and stood up, going back to her chair and finishing her food._ _

__Since she left the vault, she was able to sleep like a rock. The whole ordeal was a lot on her compared to life inside the vault. The Vault Dweller slept through out the night until something woke her and she inhaled sharply as she went to hit what had woken her, a hand catching her wrist. Shaking her head and groaning, Lyna blinked her blue eyes multiple times until she saw Olivia leaning over her._ _

__"W-What? What time is it?" she groaned._ _

__Grabbing the Pip-Boy, Olivia looked at the clock. "Six in the morning. You fell asleep around eight-thirty." With a groan, the black haired woman relaxed back against the couch. "Can you use guns?" A brow was raised a the question. "You need to be able to protect yourself and a knife that woman gave you isn't going to help."_ _

__Lyna scoffed and locked eyes with Olivia. "One, her name is Karen. Two, she's my godmother. Three, she was ready to hit you with that shovel yesterday because she was afraid you were going to try and harm us. And no, I can't use a gun. Only taught hand-to-hand combat in the Vault. No handling of firearms."_ _

__A handgun was pushed against her chest and the 24 year old nearly freaked at the sight of it. "Get dressed, I'm training you."_ _

__She looked at the gun and turned it over in her hands before sitting up and putting her Vault suit on half way, tying the arms around her waist before pulling her boots on and running after Olivia who left the house. She stopped as the woman, who had set out bottles, came back to her. "So..."_ _

__"So...I'm training you. I'm only good with handguns but I know the basics with other guns. When you get better, I'll give you a different gun." informed Olivia as she looked at Lyna. She saw the young woman's brows knit together. "Stop thinking so hard. Just say it."_ _

__With a sigh, the 24 year old tilted her head a bit. "Why are you doing all of this for me? You didn't have to come for me in Flatwoods, you didn't have to braid my hair while I ate yesterday morning, you don't have to train me."_ _

__A hand smacked against her thigh as she was put into the proper stance. "No, I do." she spoke making Lyna raise her arms. "You're new to this world, Vaultie." She saw the eye twitch at the nickname. "I could've been a Raider for all you knew but you became trusting when seeing me. A bit nervous but trusting." A hand grabbed at her chin and Olivia narrowed her eyes. "You cannot be trusting. There are raiders out there that will trick you and once you've let your guard down, will stab you in your ribs. You're going to learn how to use a gun. Small arms then you'll move to the hunting rifle I have in the house."_ _

__Swallowing, she nodded against the grip on her chin and she was released as Olivia moved behind her. "Are you ready?"_ _

__"Yes..."_ _

__"And we're going to be at this until you shoot every bottle I've put out. Understood?"_ _

__"Understood."_ _

__This was going to be a long day..._ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 3 will hopefully be up soon, if not it'll be up sometime after the game is released in the next couple of weeks.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I forgot to mention last chapter that Olivia was created by my girlfriend <3
> 
> Took me a while to do this but I was getting distracted by other stuff lol. Hoping to get the next chapter up before the end of the year. 
> 
> Also I apologize for any spelling mistakes, I don't always catch them and then when I think I did catch them all, I read my story after I post it and there's a spelling mistake lol.

Every day for the past four days, Olivia had Lyna training with a gun. She graduated from a handgun to a hunting rifle with in a day and a half. The girl, for lack of experience, was pretty good with a gun. She seemed more stronger when it came to a hunting rifle and Lyna stated it felt better in her hands. 

On the fourth day, Olivia jumped at the sound of a gunshot but heard a bottle shatter afterwards. She walked out of her workshop and made her way out to where their shooting range was.

"Bullets don't grow on trees, Vaultie!" she shouted, sounding more annoyed than anything.

Lyna pulled the lever back, the shell ejecting from the chamber, and she pushed it back into place. She sat up from her laying position and looked towards Olivia, the 37 year old having her arms crossed and her foot was tapping. She tried not to laugh, she almost resembled Phoibe when she was upset, not looks wise but stance wise. She grabbed her gun and stood up, her knees cracking a bit but she ignored the quick shot of pain. "Sorry. I was trying out the scope you made me."

The taller of the two watched as Lyna fiddled with the scope before shaking her head. "No, I'm sorry. I probably looked like an angry mother."

"Well you pull it off nicely." she teased.

Olivia smiled softly and pushed on Lyna's shoulder lightly. "I also wanted to talk to you about your sleeping situation." A curious noise left the young woman as she tilted her head. "Have your own pillow and blanket but I'll let you sleep in bed with me."

"Really?" she asked, a curt nod was her answer. "That's awesome. Thank you."

"Just remember your blanket. I don't know if you're a blanket hog." she teased.

Shaking her head, Lyna smiled. "Nah, not me. That was my ex Kathryn. She was quite the blanket hog."

Olivia tried not to made a face at the mention of an ex. Why did it bother her? Lyna could speak so fondly about an ex-girlfriend with a smile on her face. "You remained friends with your ex?"

She nodded and put her rifle over her shoulder. "I'm Vault baby number one and she was two, we became automatic friends and after we broke up when I was eighteen and she was seventeen, we decided to remain friends. I have a like hate relationship with her boyfriend. He's nice and would protect her but he's what my mother referred too a typical pre-war jock...I have no idea what those were like so..."

"Well I was home schooled so I can't tell you what they were like either." sighed the blonde. "You going to Flatwoods today?"

With a nod, Lyna looked at her. "Yeah, that's my plan. Check with Karen and see if there's any reports on my dad. I know she said some of the reports mentioned the Scorched heading towards the airport. I don't know what the Scorched are."

Olivia gave a small grimace. "Their similar to the Feral Ghouls you've probably fought at the Red Rocket, they always seem to go there but they were once human who were infected with what the Responders called the Scorch Plague. They operate like a hive mind. Their skin is red and they have what looks like leaves growing out of them. I haven't seen one up close and personal to get any real notes on them. I've been hoping to ask the Doctor the Responders have working on it but she never leaves the Airport much."

"You could go there." she stated.

"No, too far for me on my own. There are raider camps littered through out Appalachia. So I just stay here. I go into Flatwoods if I need too but that's about it." sighed the blonde.

The 24 year old just nodded and lightly chewed at her bottom lip. "Well if I ever go to the airport, I could scout the way out for you and then bring you there?"

A small smile formed on Olivia's face. "You're a sweet girl. I would prefer if you didn't go to the airport on your own though. Last thing I need is that Karen lady on my ass..."

Lyna just smiled and moved to go put her stuff away. She grabbed a box of hunting rifle and stuck it into the satchel that Olivia had given her on the first day of gun training. She walked towards Olivia as the blonde went back to her workshop, grabbed her top and pulled her over to kiss her cheek and left the house. Taking off in the direction of Flatwoods.

Olivia had asked a day ago that when out scavenging she could use some random scrap, she was building something but stated anything would be able to be used. What exactly was she building? Well she said she wouldn't tell Lyna that until it was done. She knew regardless of Olivia now letting her sleep in her bed, she was still iffy about her but she seemed to be getting more and more warm towards her. 

She was by the Red Rocket Gas Station in Flatwoods, looking over a jammed and rather damaged 10mm pistol that she found. Pulling the trigger didn’t even work, it got stuck halfway back an she sighed. Well that was one way to get some parts. She opened the satchel she had resting on her hip and stuck it inside with some other stuff she found.

She heard a sound and looked towards it, she knew it wasn’t a passive animal. It wasn’t a Radstag, it wasn’t an opossum...it definitely wasn’t an opossum. She pulled her hunting rifle off her shoulder, the strap attached to it courtesy of Olivia, and went out the front entrance of the Red Rocket and went right to the small hill. What had she been expecting to see? She stared at an albino Deathclaw, the very same one she saw when at the top of the church with Karen, it’s right leg trapped in a bear trap. A larger Deathclaw laid off to the side but it wasn’t moving or breathing and was bloodied, it was obviously dead.

Lyna put her hunting rifle back over onto her shoulder and moved closer quietly as the Deathclaw saw her, roaring and swiping it’s paw at her, making her move back quickly. The trips of its claws scratching against the fabric of her jumpsuit and thankfully not cutting it in the process. “Stop.” she spoke making it look at her. She reached into the second satchel on the other hip, she had the straps crossing each other on her chest and pulled out a bit of radstag she had harvested from a recent kill, the poor creature had crossed her path on the way to Flatwoods, she tossed it at the Deathclaw and the creature caught it in it’s mouth. She crouched by it’s foot, praying to whatever God would listen, that the Deathclaw didn’t attack her.

The bear trap was embedded in the Deathclaw’s leg, just above it’s ankle. “How the fuck do I open these?” she asked as she looked at it. It wasn’t like she’d be able to bring the Deathclaw to Olivia and ask for her help. The Deathclaw ripped a chunk of the meat she gave it and chewed happily, it was distracted for now. She pushed down on one of the sides and saw the bear trap open a tiny bit before and that was with all her strength with her arms. She sat her rifle aside before standing up and carefully putting a foot on either side of sides, pushing all her weight down on it the best she could and saw it open a bit more. “I’m gonna fucking open this!” She reached down and slid her fingers between the clamps, pulling as hard as she could as she used her feet to force her weight down onto it.

She pried the jaws apart and the Deathclaw, apparently now realizing it’s foot was free a bit, wiggled it’s leg until it pulled it free, the young woman quickly pulling her fingers out from between the jaws and kept in her hunched position cause of how very aware she was that the Deathclaw was now free. She heard a noise, not an angry noise but one that almost sounded like it was curious. She rose her head slowly and looked at it. The Deathclaw tilted it’s head at her. Well the upside was, it wasn’t attacking her...yet. “We good?” she asked, it looked at her and didn’t react when she slowly stepped back off the bear trap. “Okay, we’re good…”

Rachel looked at the chain connected to the bear trap and followed it to where it was wrapped around a tree. She looked at it and saw the lock holding it wasn’t even locked. She undid the lock and pulled the trap towards her, maybe Olivia could make use of it or she could use it to hunt Radstags later. She picked it up and grunted at how heavy it was. She grabbed her rifle and put it over her shoulder, looking at the Deathclaw. It had to have been in the stage between a baby and an adult, not as large as ones she’s seen but it wasn’t tiny either. This Deathclaw easily towered her by half a foot if not more.

“Don’t you attack me once my back is turn.” she playfully scolded, pointing at the Deathclaw, it tilted it’s head curiously and stared at her with it’s almost red eyes. “Okay good, we’re at an understanding.”

Lyna walked away and heard the sound of it following her, she looked back at it and the Deathclaw stopped. It didn’t look mad, it didn’t look as if it would attack her. She took a few steps forward while keeping her eyes trained on the Deathclaw, it matched her steps but staying behind her. Did she somehow imprint on the, as Olivia called them, death machine? Was the dead Deathclaw it’s mother or father? She’d harvest what she could from that Deathclaw but last thing she needed was this Deathclaw getting mad at her.

She sighed and pointed right by her, the Deathclaw actually moving closer. “Well fuck...how exactly do I tell Olivia I have a Deathclaw?” It tilted it’s head again, almost like a curious puppy or kitten. “Which means now I’ve got to name you. I don’t even know if you’re a boy or a girl, Olivia might. A need a gender neutral name.” She reached her hand out and the Deathclaw placed it’s hand against it, she rubbed the spot. “Sparkles. It’d be very ironic. A sweet and cute name for a death machine.”

The tail of the Deathclaw thumped against the ground in an almost attempt to wag. Were these overgrown deadly lizards, cat or dog like? It’s tail wagged a bit, thumping against the ground. She’d have to test that later, she’d give it a box. See if it got in it like a cat. “Alright, let's take you home with me. Olivia’s going to murder me.” The Deathclaw just rubbed against her almost cat like and she laughed, rubbing at it’s head with both hands.

Back at the church in Flatwoods, Karen was sweeping the floor and putting everything garbage wise into a crate that she threw into a pile and then later burned. She heard a noise and saw Lyna enter the church, turning around and making a motion. She rose an eyebrow and Lyna walked to the terminal.

"No news yet sweetie." she answered making the 24 year old sigh. "What were you making hand motions too?"

"Ah...Sparkles." she spoke.

Both of Karen's eyebrows shot up. "And what, pray tell, is a Sparkles?"

"A Deathclaw."

Karen laughed and smiled. "Good one sweetie." Lyna whistled and Sparkles peaked in making Karen shout. "WHAT THE FUCK?!"

"Sparkles." she said pointing. "He...she? Whatever. Sparkles was stuck in a bear trap so I freed it and not it won't leave me alone. Olivia's gonna freak."

"I'm going to have a heart attack!" informed the older woman.

Her goddaughter busted out laughing and shook her head. "Sparkles is a sweetie."

"You named it...Sparkles."

"It's gender neutral!"

Karen face palmed and groaned loud making Sparkles tilt it's head. "I love you kiddo but from what you told me that Olivia told you, that thing could rip you in half!" Sparkles growled at the outburst, the Deathclaw couldn't get into the church anyways, it was too large. Lyna whistled slightly and the Deathclaw stopped growling. "Good luck explaining that to what's her face." Flinching a bit, Lyna knew Karen had a point. She sighed and hugged her before leaving to bring Sparkles home with her.

Olivia was shaking a beaker full of liquid as she had her eyes closed, her head tilted back a bit. She heard the front door open and gave a small smile. She heard movement and rose a brow. Looking at the beaker, she saw the liquid had turned colors like she wanted and she corked it, placing it into it's holder before leaving the room to see Lyna going through the fridge.

"Vaultie?"

"I have a problem."

"Your period?" she asked seeing her take a raw stake of radstag. "I can cook that for you."

Lyna shook her head. "My problem isn't my period, I ended it two days before Reclamation day. Can mutated creatures imprint on humans?"

"They could. I suppose. I've seen some people imprint with brahmin, one person imprinted with a radscorpion from what i was told. Why?"

A loud noise came from outside the house and Lyna jumped making Olivia look with wide eyes. "Uh...I freed a Deathclaw and now it's following me around. Rubbing against me like a cat at times..."

Hands grabbed at her face and Olivia looked like she wanted to swear, a noise coming out of her mouth as her teeth bit her lower lip. "How naive are you?!" she managed before grabbing her 10mm pistol and going to the front door.

"No. No! Olivia no!" she shouted running after her, she ran by her and leaped down the stairs as she positioned herself in front of Sparkles who growled at the side of the gun. The Deathclaw wrapped a hand around her waist and pulled her close as it roared making Lyna's eyes cross at how loud it was. "Olivia put it down! Trust me!"

The blonde gripped the pistol tighter in her hand before lowering it with an annoyed noise and Lyna wiggled a little before she was released. She tossed the stake up and the creature went after it and captured the raw meet in it's mouth. Olivia ran down and pulled Lyna against her as she stared the Deathclaw, it eating the stake eagerly. "It's a Matriarch."

"Huh?"

"I can tell by the horns. It's a Matriarch. Granted it has no children yet, it's still too small, it's a Matriarch." whispered the blonde as she kept Lyna against her front as she kept her free hand on her pistol, angling it behind her so the Deathclaw couldn't see. "Matriarch horns curve out and down, compared to the alpha's forward and up. It's actually interesting to see it's an albino one."

Lyna stared at Sparkles who ate the stake and wagged it's tail. "So Sparkles is a...she?"

"Sparkles. Oh my god..." groaned Olivia as she pressed her forehead to Lyna's shoulder. "Yes, it's a she. Look, I don't like the idea of it on my land but if it turns, I expect you to put it down."

"R-Right." she answered before Olivia gave her waist as squeeze before releasing her.

Sparkles moved over to Lyna and pressed it's head against her, she horns poking her a bit making her flinch but they weren't sharp. "I'd tell you she's not allowed in the house but she's obviously too large to fit through the door. Actually give me a second." She ran inside and Sparkles tilted her head as she looked at Lyna.

Olivia returned with a tape measure and a notebook, she tossed the tape measure at her and Lyna barely managed to catch it. It took her twenty seconds to realize that Olivia wanted her to measure Sparkles' high. She stood straight up and Sparkles copied her. "Stay." she spoke making the tail thump. She jumped up and managed to lightly rest the tape measure on Sparkles' horn and bring it down to her feet. "Well shit, I was wrong. She's seven feet and two inches. I thought she was half a foot taller than me."

"They don't really straighten up a lot so they look shorter when hunched over. Measure her tail for me?" she asked as she wrote the information down in the notebook.

Moving around Sparkles, who hunched back over slightly, and watched Olivia curiously as she felt her human move around behind her. "Uh...three feet and eleven inches."

Olivia tilted her head as she wrote the info down. "I need you to understand something okay? Deathclaws grow fast. She could've hatched from an egg three weeks ago. I spent a while watching Deathclaws in my travels, thankfully came across someone's hunting platform and stayed there as I watched them. Matriarchs grow to around nine feet. Taller than Alphas but maybe half a foot, I never measured a dead Alpha like I have a Matriarch."

The twenty-four year old nodded as she listened, so Sparkles had more growing to do and was nearly nine feet already. "Can I copy your notes?" she asked as Olivia nodded and closed her journal.

When the two went inside, Sparkles laid down by the end of the porch stairs. She could probably come up further but choose not too. Olivia told her that Sparkles could use the shed that Olivia never once touched since living in the house. The doors were broken off but the entrance was big enough for Sparkles to fit in and it was just off to the side of the house, it's opening facing the direction that the women took to Flatwoods. Hopefully she'd realize she could go in there if the whether took a turn, Olivia said the way the skies were looking off in the distance, that a rain storm might be coming.

Lyna took copy of Olivia's notes while sitting on the porch as the older woman cooked dinner, Lyna could cook but the older woman didn't seem to want her to try. Maybe she was worried the girl would make a mess? She sketched out Sparkles as she slept, curled up in a ball similar to a cat. She had managed to get a pencil from Olivia, it was hard and stressful to sketch with a pen. She had copied all of Olivia's notes before sketching Sparkles in her journal. The deathclaw made a noise similar to a purr and that made Lyna blink several times in surprise as the Deathclaw rolled over onto it's side, she knew they probably didn't sleep on their back cause of their spines.

The blonde walked out carrying another bowl of radstag soup, which was slowly becoming one of Lyna's favorite's. "Thank you." she spoke setting her journal aside as Olivia sat beside her on the bench, moving the meat and noodles around in the broth. "Could you teach me some of the dishes you make?"

"I have notes, as I perfected the recipe I wrote the directions down. So I'll let you go through them and copy those you want." answered the older woman before taking a spoonful of the soup. "I've got some easy ones that you could make on the go if you have the ingredients. Which I'm sure would be useful for you since you keep running off on me."

She just nudged Olivia and the woman chuckled lightly. She drank some of the broth as she watched Sparkles, the Deathclaw having a nice little sleep. Thunder rumbled in the distance making the Deathclaw jolt awake and look, her large tail flopping over her legs. Lyna sat her food aside and stood up. She patted at one of Sparkles' horns making the Deathclaw get up and move after her as Olivia stood up, walking the length of the porch but keeping her eye on Lyna the entire way. Sparkles went into the shed and curled up into a ball as she laid down just before the skies opened up and rain started falling. The 24 year old turned and ran back under the cover of the porch roof.

An hour after dinner, Lyna laid on the bed and nearly sighed in pleasure. Olivia looked at her over her journal and rose a brow. "That good?"

"Really good." she groaned out as she pulled the zipper down, to reveal not a tank top like Olivia was used to seeing but the middle section of a black bra and just tanned skin. "I can't sleep in this. I mean...I can but..." She saw Olivia looking at the exposed skin and lightly tapped the blonde's cheek.

"What?" she asked snapping out of her daze. 

With a small laugh, the younger woman sat up and grabbed her backpack that she put on her side of the bed. She dug out a tank top and pulled at her sleeves to quickly put her top on, reaching under to unhook her bra and work it out of her shirt with out taking it off. She draped it over her backpack and shimmied out of her jumpsuit, she still wore her boxer like shorts under it. She folded her jumpsuit up and put it over her bra before laying back down with a groan.

She swore she saw Olivia's gaze linger on her a bit more but she could've been wrong, the 37 year old was now writing in her journal as Lyna rolled onto her side to face the other woman and tucked the blanket under her arm before closing her eyes and attempting sleep. It was maybe twenty minutes since Lyna fell asleep that it thundered so loud above the house the windows rattled making the younger woman twitch and her eyebrows knit together. Hushing her, Olivia slid her left hand into her hair and lightly massaged her scalp as she used her right hand to write in her journal. She smiled as she felt the younger woman almost instantly relax. She knew that in the vault, there was probably no way Lyna could hear a thunder storm of this intensity and even if the Vault Dwellers had, it wouldn't have rattled anything and was most likely dampened by the cliff side it sat in.

Stroking her thumb against Lyna's left temple, she relaxed against the wall as she bent her legs up a bit to prop her journal against them. A lantern lit on her bedside table, the flame flickering being her source of light right now as the fire in the wood stove was crackling with fire. The windows cracked open so the breeze could come in but none of the rain. Leaning over, she peaked at Lyna's Pip-Boy to see it was near eleven-thirty at night and she closed her journal.

She put her book away into the drawer before laying down and looking at the sleeping Vault Dweller, slipping her right hand back into her hair once laying down. Olivia gave a small smile and slid her hand away from the young woman and closed her eyes to get some sleep herself.

Olivia woke up around 10am, her right arm was wrapped around something and she knit her brows together as she felt someone breathing on her neck. Pulling back a bit, she saw that she and Lyna had cuddled together in their sleep. Lyna's face tucked away into Olivia's neck with Olivia's arm wrapped around her waist. She rolled onto her back and exhaled as Lyna groaned once feeling the warmth leave her. Her eyes opened and saw Olivia sitting up.

"What happened?" she muttered.

"It's time to wake up." answered the older woman. "Never heard a thunder storm have you?"

Knitting her brows together before rubbing at her eyes as she inhaled deeply. "No, at most it sounded like a small rumble but never heard a thunderstorm outside the vault. Why?"

The woman stood up from the bed and looked at her. "You got a bit restless before I fell asleep. It was thundering out pretty bad. Like shaking the windows bad."

Lyna rolled onto her back and looked out the window to see there was no sun, instead it was still cloudy. She sat up and rubbed at her head with a small exhale. "I should get ready and go do my usual stuff." she muttered.

"You're eating breakfast first."

"I'm eating breakfast first." she chuckled as Olivia walked out of the room.

Quickly dressing herself, she walked out of the bedroom zipping her vault jumpsuit and tucking the zipper away. She entered the kitchen to see Olivia pouring a bowl of cereal and following it up with milk. She sat down and got to eating the food as Olivia retreated to the bedroom and grabbed Lyna's bag and gun.

After five minutes, Lyna finished her cereal and downed the milk inside of the bowl. She put her backpack on her back and put the hunting rifle over her shoulder, pulling Olivia down a bit by her shirt and kissed her cheek. The blonde rolled her eyes but a small smile formed on her face. "Be careful!" she shouted as Lyna ran out of the house. 

The Vault Dweller clapped her hands together as she ran by the shed making Sparkles run out and take off after Lyna, quickly pressing against her and she grabbed onto the right horn and hoist herself up to rest her left leg against the creature's hip.

Lyna managed to situate herself against Sparkles' back as she ran the way the Vault Dweller lead her. Towards Morgantown Airport. Yes, Olivia said she didn't want Lyna going there alone but Lyna wasn't alone right now. She had a deadly creature that seemed to care for her. She could hear shooting as they got closer and she clicked her tongue, Sparkles coming to a stop and her claws digging into the dirt. The Vault Dweller jumped down from the Deathclaw's back and approached the gate, she peered through the gaps in the wood to see tents laying around and what looked like...petrified corpses? The fighting sounded like it came from the back of the building.

She opened the gate and stepped through as she took her rifle off her shoulder. She wrapped the strap twice around her wrist, not tight but just so it was out of the way. Sparkles followed her, Lyna knew it was impossible to be stealthy with a creature like Sparkles, her foot steps thumped each time. Leaning around the corner, she saw Responders firing at Scorched or at least what she believed were the Scorched from Olivia's notes. She'd never seen them before. She rose her hunting rifle and aimed as as Scorched ran at a woman who's back was tuned and pulled the trigger.

The Scorched was shot right in the head making the woman jump and turn, the body hit the ground and Lyna pulled the lever back to eject the shell. She exhaled and aimed at another Scorched, pulling the trigger and quickly ejecting the shell. She heard a shout and looked to see a Scorched run at her, quickly moving out of the way and almost falling. Sparkles quickly attacked the Scorched and killed him.

"Girl get out of here!" shouted someone, seeing Lyna run out of the way to dodge the Scorched.

"I'm here to help!" she shouted as she aimed at another Scorched and quickly put it down. "I heard your emergency radio!" A scream made her look to see a woman being cornered by Scorched and she looked at Sparkles. "Sparkles! DO SOMETHING!"

The Deathclaw roared and ran towards the Scorched going at the woman, killing each one. Seeing a machete laying on the runway, Lyna ran at it and grabbed the handle before slamming it into the head of a Scorched. Wielding a machete was, in Lyna's mind, similar to the hand-to-hand combat training she did in the vault...granted a punch or kick didn't slice flesh.

Apparently bringing a Deathclaw was a game changer. Sparkles ripped through the Scorched like a hot knife through butter and Lyna was a big help, alternating between using the machete and her hunting rifle when she had time to aim. The last Scorched hit the ground and the 24 year old dropped the machete once assured she didn't see any other Scorched. Sparkles moved to Lyna and looked at the other humans.

"We're lucky." spoke a woman, the same lady on the radio signal. Maria Chavez. "No Scorchbeast."

"No...just a Deathclaw." spoke a voice making them all look at Sparkles who growled.

Lyna tssked and shook her head making Sparkles stop growling. "Pretty sure she didn't attack you." she snapped out.

The man narrowed his eyes at Lyna. "And it's yours?"

"I suppose." she answered. "Freed her from a bear trap last night and...I was told she could've imprinted on me. Her parent was dead."

The group of Responders looked between Lyna and Sparkles before going to commune against themselves, probably about Sparkles' presence. Rolling her blue eyes, Lyna saw a broken Responders Eyebot laying on the runway and moved towards it. A gunshot went off making the Responders turn as Lyna went still. A scorched had rounded the building where a lot of the robot parts were stored, it's gun drawn and Lyna inhaled sharply as she felt a warmth spreading across her stomach. Sparkles went at her, stopping behind her before looking at the Scorched. The Deathclaw opened her mouth, releasing a roar much louder and longer than she had previously done. A roar of anger for hurting Lyna?

As Sparkles ran at the Scorched, Lyna's hands pressed against her stomach and felt the fabric of her jumpsuit was soaked with a warm liquid. "Oh fuck..." she managed as she looked down and saw blood on her hands. She almost started hyperventilating as Maria ran towards her.

"Hey...hey!" she caught Lyna as she fell. "Lance!"

The older man, roughly in his mid sixties, running to Maria. "She...she said not too...oh fuck she said not to come..." spoke Lyna as her breathing was coming out fast and she looked at the two in a panic. "I don't want..."

"Easy. You're not going to die." spoke Maria.

"We don't have any equipment here. It was either damaged in the attack or we hadn't restocked." spoke Lance.

The 24 year old kept her hands over her stomach, feeling a hand against her back. "F-Flatwoods." she spoke making the two look back at her. "F...oh fuck something's broken."

Looking up, Lance saw the Deathclaw tearing into the Scorched. "Flatwoods. We gotta get her to Flatwoods." He ran over towards a wooden platform with wheels that they often hooked their brahmin up too. "What's your Deathclaw's name?!"

"S..." she groaned as her stomach hurt. "Sparkles!"

Lance mouthed the name as the Deathclaw turned and ran back to Lyna. He grabbed the straps and moved to out it on the creature but she growled. Lyna clicked her tongue and shook her head, the creature settled down and let Lance do so. He wrapped it around Sparkles' waist as Maria pulled Lyna's backpack off and eased her onto the platform. "Okay...you're okay." whispered the woman as she put Lyna's head in her lap. "Who ever is coming back to Flatwoods, get your shit quickly."

A couple of Responders ran to get their things as Lance shifted on the platform to rest on his knees. "Can she get back to Flatwoods?" he asked as Lyna's eyes rolled back a bit before nodding. He looked her up and down only to feel really stupid that he just realized right then and there that she was a Vault Dweller. Blue with yellow jumpsuit and Pip-Boy being a dead give away. The Responders coming back to Flatwoods with them ran towards them and Lance sighed. "Alright, back to Flatwoods."

To tell the truth, when asked, Lyna would state she didn't remember exactly how Lance managed to guide a Deathclaw that didn't seem to like him. Maybe it was the whole having a gun thing.

It took twenty minutes to get back to Flatwoods, the Responders having to run after the Deathclaw pulling the item attached to her. Maria was applying pressure to the exit wound as Lance kept his hands firmly over Lyna's stomach. Karen had jumped as she heard people, actual legit people. At first she figured it was Vault Dwellers passing through, until two Responders raced into the church demanding a stretcher.

Lance lifted Lyna off the platform making the woman groan loud. "Okay kid...you're almost better."

"W-Where's Karen?" she managed. She was getting a bit pale from blood loss.

"Who's Karen?" he asked as he walked into the church.

"I'm Karen." spoke the woman hearing Lance. She looked down into his arms and stepped back while making a noise. "What. The. Fuck?"

Lance laid Lyna down on the stretcher as Maria ran in with her Doctor's bag, one of the others grabbing it for her. "Do you know her?" she asked. The blonde nodded. "What's her name?"

Pushing her glasses up, Karen just stared at Lyna for half a second before seeing the woman looking impatient. "Lyna." Lance looked towards her. "With a Y not an I. I need to get Olivia."

Karen ran out of the church before either Lance or Maria could say anything. "Lyna." whispered the older man before moving to the young woman. "Lyna..." the girl hummed, her eyes closed. "Lyna look at me." Blue eyes looked at him. "What's your mother's name?" Maria rose a brow as she found the zipper and pulled it down. 

"Ph...Phoibe." she managed before groaning as Maria lifted her up a bit to pull the jumpsuit down.

The older man just stepped back as Maria moved the jumpsuit bellow Lyna's hips, pushing her tank top up to see the bullet wound. "There's an exit wound so we need to...Lance?"

"Someone else needs to help you. I can't." he spoke before turning and leaving. One of the others running to aid Maria in making sure nothing was severely damaged granted Lyna was shot in the stomach close to her side.

Lance moved to the stone wall in front of the church and sat down on it as he pulled out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and lit up a cigarette. Looking to the side, he saw Sparkles almost pacing back and forth. He was halfway through his cigarette when he heard running. Karen came back with someone. The woman stopping the doorway as she saw Lyna being worked on by Maria and another Responder.

"What happened?" asked Karen to Lance, sounding angry.

"She got shot by a Scorched." he informed, tapping the cigarette so the ashes fell.

The taller blonde ran her hands through her hair and muttered to herself before inhaling deeply. "Where did she encounter Scorched?"

Taking a drag from the cigarette, Lance looked at her. "Morgantown Airport."

The answer wasn't what the woman wanted. She groaned loud and Sparkles looked at her before going back to her pacing. "I told her not to go alone!" she snapped out, mainly to herself. "I told her it was too dangerous!"

"Yeah, it was." whispered the older man as he stared at the church.

Maria and the Responder cleaned and stitched the wounds up but Lyna fell asleep or passed out some point during it. She was carefully moved to a bed as Karen went on to explain that when she arrived at the church, everyone was dead. That out of respect, she and Lyna buried everyone. The Responders took it oddly well, sure there was sadness on their faces but still. Olivia laid on her side in the bed as Lyna was asleep on her back. The blonde whispering to the sleeping 24 year old.

Karen helped out the Responders, Olivia getting up once in a while to walk around as Sparkles settled on the side of the Church and went to sleep. Lance made dinner for everyone, having gone hunting for a Radstag. Olivia went to sleep in the bed with Lyna, her arm carefully draped over her and a blanket over both of them regardless of stating the afternoon before that she didn't want to share a blanket. She was fine with it for tonight.

It was around six in the morning when Maria groaned, rubbing at her eyes as she sat in the chair beside Lyna's bed. Having fallen asleep there. She pinched the bridge of her nose and squeezed her eyes shut, a headache was forming. She felt someone nudge her and looked to see Karen standing there. "Coffee." she spoke making Maria take it with a small smile. "I found a can in the tavern so I had to make it."

"Thanks." she smiled as she watched Lyna.

Karen sighed and rapped her finger against the side of the cup. "Do you know Scott Carter?"

The Responder knit her brows together and hummed in thought. "Paramedic before the war right?" Karen nodded. "Yeah, his pregnant wife was in seventy-six. He gave his spot up to a neighbor."

"Me." she spoke making Maria look at her with a look of surprise. "And she..." Karen pointed at Lyna. "Is the child Phoibe was pregnant with."

"W-Wait." spoke the woman as Karen pushed her glasses up. "You're telling me the girl who came to our aid is Scott's daughter? That's why Lance has been acting weird since learning her mother's name."

Now that the blonde thought about it, that guy was waiting weird. "Lemme guess, given his age, he's Scott's father?" Maria nodded and sipped at her coffee. "So how long until she's healed?"

The woman hummed and sat her cup down on the table before sliding Lyna's tank top up a bit to peer under the bandages she wrapped around her torso. "It's the same but I didn't give her many stimpaks cause I don't know her body's tolerance but at most, it'll get rid of any pain."

"Can she eat when she wakes?"

"I'd like if she did. She lost a lot of blood yesterday." answered Maria.

With a nod, Karen turned and left the church to go across the street to the tavern. Since burying the bodies, Karen cleaned the place up and blocked the hole in the wall on the upper floor of the tavern. Opossums kept getting in through there and she was sick of chasing them out. Maria heard a noise and looked to see Lyna's eyes open and she inhaled deeply.

Turning her head, Lyna saw Olivia sleeping beside her and looked towards Maria. "Did anyone feed Sparkles?"

The woman laughed and smiled. "You get shot, wake up after sleeping for almost twelve hours, and your first question is did someone feed your Deathclaw?" Lyna nodded. "Yes, Olivia fed your Deathclaw."

The twenty-four year old exhaled and sat up a bit, the motion making Olivia groan and push her face into the pillow. Maria put her hands under Lyna's arms and helped her sit against the metal headboard of the bed. "Being shot sucks."

"Be thankful that it didn't hit anything important." she spoke grabbing her cup of coffee and sipping it. "If that had happen, you'd feel a lot worse cause I would have had to try and fix what had happened. All I needed to do was clean your wounds and stitch you up. Any pain?"

"A little." Maria sat her cup back down and stood up to go to the doctor's bag that sat on the table by the vendor bot. She pulled out a syringe filled with purple liquid. "What's that?"

"Med-X." she informed approaching Lyna. "It'll ease any pain." She lifted Lyna's shirt and uncapped the needle. "The injection itself might burn." She pushed it into the skin just bellow the stitched up wound and injected the medicine. Lyna flinched a little but seemed fine after a second. She put the bandage back over the little needle hole. "Alright. Hungry?"

Lyna nodded and Maria stood up to go see if anything was ready but saw Karen walking in. "Lance was already cooking and when I mentioned Lyna, he gave up his plate for food."

Maria chuckled and took the plate before setting it on Lyna's lap as Olivia rolled onto her back and groaned. "Why do I smell meat?" she muttered.

"Cause I have good." answered the 24 year old, the sound of her voice making the blonde shoot up. "Hi Olivia."

An arm around wround her shoulders and she was pressed against Olivia, her face nuzzling against Olivia. The first time she acknowledge that the woman smelled of antiseptic (a result of her experiments), Sugar Bombs, and freshly fallen rain. Lyna narrowed her eyes as she pressed against the older woman. "Don't you ever do that again." whispered the 37 year old. "Do you understand me?" A nod against her neck was her answer.

Olivia left the church to get some coffee as Lyna slowly ate what looked like bacon, apparently was Opossum bacon...lovely, and some cut up mutfruits. She was given a bottle of Nuka-Cola and finished her breakfast. Maria helped her put her boots back on but watching Lyna loosely tie the arms of her vault suit around her waist, Maria hadn't been sure if she had anything for pants underneath the jump suit so refused to fully take it off.

She walked with her out of the church, mainly wanting to make sure she wouldn't fall over. "Lyna!" shouted a voice making her knit her brows together. She looked to the right and saw nobody but turned her head to look to the left and saw Kathryn running down the road. "LYNA!"

"Kathryn?" she asked.

"What is this? Vault Dweller hour?" Maria asked only to grunt as a hand lightly smacked her stomach.

Vault baby number two ran up to Lyna and grabbed her arms. "I need help." she spoke. Why was there a bruise on her cheek? "Jake hit me." Lyna made an exasperated noise noise and shook her head. Wait what? "You're confused. He got mad, he was frustrated...so many of those red people attacking us and I suggest we find you, that maybe it was safer here and he backhanded me."

Hands grabbed Lyna's tank top and she was shoved hard against a wall making her cry out as pain shot through her gunshot. Jake was holding her there, anger on his face. "Of course she left me to come back too you!"

"Get off me!" she spat out as she tried to push against him only to flinch as he pushed against her side. 

Maria tried to pull him off but she was shoved back hard enough thad she nearly fell over. "Get off her!" cried Kathryn. "I didn't leave you for her! I left you cause you punched me!"

Lyna could feel some warmth blossoming against the bandages on the exit wound. Fuck. Had he messed up her stitches? "Jake." she spoke calmly as she swallowed thickly. "Jake listen to me..." he narrowed his eyes at her, there was so much anger in his eyes. "You've known me for as long as you've been alive and I'm giving you one chance to let me go...or else."

He snorted and smirked. "Or else what?"

"Or else you'll get hurt." said a woman's voice making him look only for a fist to strike him right in the jaw and then a foot slammed into his side, kicking him away from Lyna. 

Olivia angled herself in front of Lyna as Jake pulled a pipe pistol out. "Back off." he spat out. "I've got this."

Lyna narrowed her eyes as she saw movement behind him. "Good for you." she spoke. "I've got something deadlier."

He heard a huff of breath behind him as Kathryn gasped and backed away. He slowly turned around and saw a Deathclaw looking down at him. Sparkles' red eyes staring into his. "What the..."

Sparkles roared in his face making him back up, tripping over his own feet. The Deathclaw huffed out as she stood there staring at the fallen human. Jake tried to fire but the weapon jammed, the sound of it clicking making the creature growl. "Put the gun down." spoke Olivia. "She doesn't like weapons aimed at her."

He almost didn't seem to compute what had been told to him until Sparkles growled louder and he tossed the pistol aside. Maria moved around Lyna and lifted her bandages up, the front was fine but she swore as she checked the back. "He broke two stitches."

That made Olivia got at him and seize him by his vault suit, forcing him onto his feet before tossing him aside. "Get out of here before I have her rip you to shreds!" she spat out. "You don't come near Lyna or that girl until you've calmed the fuck down!"

Olivia swearing startled Lyna. The most she's heard was her mutter the word shit under her breath but the only time she ever heard Olivia say fuck was when they first met. Sparkles, sensing Olivia's answer, roared at him to put emphasis on what she said and he looked at Kathryn before running. Kathryn went at Lyna and hugged her, the older of the two returning the hug.

Maria took care of the stitches, having Lyna lean over the table she sat at and was restitching the wound, the young woman flinching as the needle pushed through her skin as Kathryn spoke to her about what happened. Jake's sister and her girlfriend had gone with their parents instead with Jake like she originally planned. Olivia was sitting beside Lyna, staring at Kathryn. So that was Lyna's ex. The sight of her made Olivia feel a lot of emotions that she couldn't figure out.

"We originally planned to go to Morgantown but..." started Kathryn.

"Ghouls and Scorched. They would've ripped right through you." spoke Maria as she cleaned the now stitched up exit wound. "You're good."

The 23 year old smiled at Lyna and took her hand, a twinge of annoyance crossing Olivia's face. "So you were born in the vault?" asked Maria. Kathryn nodded and smiled. "Who was the first Vault baby?"

Kathryn and Lyna both pointed at Lyna. "I was born eight months after the Great War. From what my mother told me, the entire Vault was excited."

Olivia pulled out her journal and leaned back in her seat as she wrote in her journal, trying not to look like she was taking notes. She spent an hour listening to Lyna talk about everything, Maria asking her a bunch of questions...well asking Lyna and Kathryn. Her favorite color was blue (the same blue as the jumpsuit she wore to be specific), she loved Sugar Bombs with or without milk, Kathryn was her only girlfriend, and she loves playing Nuka Tapper on her Pip-Boy.

The woman tapped her pen against her lower lip as she stared at her journal. Three pages of Lyna stuff written down and Lyna hadn't even given her three pages worth of information. She just had silly little notes written about how she's cute when she smiles, about how she oddly enough wanted to ask what size her bust was but kept that to herself.

"Why is there a Deathclaw outside?!" asked a voice making Lyna look to see a man with black hair, a beard both black and grey, wearing a Responders jump suit.

"It's hers." spoke Maria pointing at Lyna.

Olivia stood up, angling herself to get in front of Lyna. "You're telling me someone tamed a Deathclaw?" he asked.

The blonde tssked and rose a brow. "She imprinted with it. There's a difference, it thinks Lyna is her mother."

The man looked at the young woman with a raised brow. "Lyna?"

Clearing her throat, the 24 year old tapped her fingers on the table. "With a Y..."

"Not an I." finished the man.

He moved at Lyna making Maria stop him. "Stop!" she spoke making him look. "She was shot yesterday Scott, if you're going to hug her...don't hug her too tight."

Scott moved to Lyna and hugged her as Olivia moved to sit back down. "Hi dad." she smiled making him exhale a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding in. 

Tilting her head back, the young woman smiled. "Well I'm glad you got your mother's looks." he stated as Lyna laughed before groaning and holding onto her side. "What shot her?"

"Scorched." spoke Olivia as she watched Lyna, she knew Scott Carter. They ran into each other once or twice.

The man rose an eyebrow at the sight of Olivia. "You actually left your house?"

"Well when I have a Vaultie living in my home, especially one who was shot, it's sorta hard not to leave my house." sighed Olivia as she smiled towards Lyna, the young woman scrunching her face up playfully. Scott mouthed a thank you and Olivia shrugged. "She grew on me."

Scott hung around Lyna, as it would be expected since he had never seen his child until today, and was eventually introduced to Sparkles. Okay so he wasn't too happy about the whole Lyna having Sparkles thing but he didn't voice it, his face just expressed his displeasure. Maria set Kathryn up with a cot on the upper floor, she wanted Lyna to stay and extra night for observation but tomorrow she could go home. 

The 24 year old was laying in the bed with Olivia beside her as Scott spoke to Maria about finding somewhere else to make home. Flatwoods was great but nobody came this way really, most likely cause Scorched stopped them. Olivia was going over notes as Kathryn crouched beside the bed.

"I might know somewhere for us to go too but I don't wanna tell Scott yet." she whispered making Lyna roll over onto her good side, Olivia sliding her hand onto her hip. "Or her...she scares me."

"Olivia's harmless." she spoke making Olivia look at Kathryn with a raised brow.

Kathryn almost mentioned how she looked jealous but kept her mouth shut. "Once you're better we'll go."

Lyna nodded as Olivia snapped her journal closed and Kathryn jumped. She kissed Lyna's forehead and ran off to go upstairs as Olivia laid beside her. "Go to sleep." spoke Maria walking by.

She and Olivia had switched sides when they went into the bed, Lyna could only lay on her left side since that was the one not injured and Olivia wanted to face her. Lyna exhaled and looked at the older woman before closing her eyes. The blonde stroking her hair as she thought about something.

Just as the 24 year old was staring to fall asleep, Olivia decided to speak then. "Hey." Lyna hummed. "You and Kathryn are...friends right?" A nod was her answer. "Just making sure she's trust worthy." Even almost asleep, Lyna could tell that was a lie. An arm slipped around her wounded side gently and a hand rubbed at her back.

Why was it so hard for Olivia to try and admit some sort of feeling for Lyna? Was it cause she had been on her own for so long, avoiding people because she was worried they'd turn on her. How could this little Vaultie make her feel emotions that she knew very well had to be love or at the very least, lust. Sighing, she pressed her face to Lyna's neck to get some sleep.

Since the day Scott returned, he's been hanging around Lyna a lot. She understood it, he also helped Olivia bring her back home and was surprised the blonde even let Lyna sleep in her bed. Karen and Kathryn left the church to build across the street from Olivia's home. Everyone chipped in, granted Lyna couldn't do much, and they managed to get the platform for where Karen and Kathryn would live before building two small homes for each of them, a tent situated between the houses for when they wanted to hang out outside. Lyna had managed to make juice from mutfruit, thanks to finding some of Olivia's recipes. She instead served everyone the juice, Olivia kissing her cheek instead of Lyna doing it too her and smiled at the flush that formed on the younger woman's face.

Sparkles seemed to get along fine with Kathryn, following her around when both Olivia and Lyna were in the house. Lance and Scott weren't okay with Sparkles' presence but kept their distance from the deadly creature. The one thing that seemed to annoy Olivia the most about Kathryn was the fact she spanked Lyna's ass as if it was the most natural thing.

It had been five days since Scott returned and slowly but surely, Lyna's wound was healing. Maria kept administering two or three Stimpaks and med-X once a day. Lyna had woken earlier than Olivia, which was rare, and was moving about the kitchen as she cut up some starlight berries, mutfruit, and blackberries. She pushed a starlight berry into her mouth as she slowly sank her teeth into skin of the berry. The floor creaked behind her as she leaned her weight onto her left food.

"What are you doing?" asked Olivia, her voice thick with sleep and oddly enough was pretty hot to Lyna.

"You always give me Sugar Bombs for breakfast so I wanted to try a fruit salad or...something." answered the Vault Dweller.

With a smile, Lyna tuned to Olivia holding two bowls. "You do know that most fruit salads have a sort of dressing and..."

The young woman shushed her making a brow be raised. "I made a dressing with Firecracker berries, honey and a tiny bit of glowing resin since it tastes sweet."

The blonde just stared at the younger woman for a bit. "Did you at one point lick a tree with glowing resin on it? Cause how the hell do you know that?"

The statement caused a burst of laughter to erupt from Lyna. "Dad told me!" she nearly squealed. "I boiled it down until it wasn't a thick and sticky liquid, then I tasted a bit."

Olivia took a bowl and sat it down on the table before moving to her fridge and opened it, grabbing a Purified Water for herself and a Nuka-Cola Cherry for Lyna. She sat the drinks down on the table as Lyna sat down salt and pepper. "You didn't use either?"

"I didn't know your preference so I thought..."

The blonde gave a nod and took the salt as Lyna put a small bit of pepper in her fruit salad and mixed it, both women switchin and doing the same with the other. They ate silently for the past five minutes until the older woman sat her fork down in the bowl.

Chewing on her lower lip a bit, she looked up at Lyna. "Vaultie." That made blue eyes look up at her. "I uh..." She tssked as she tilted her head. "I'm not good at this." Lyna knit her brows together in confusion. "You know I've been on my own for a long time...you know I don't exactly try to have contact with other humans."

Setting her own fork down a bit, Lyna tilted her head. "Olivia..."

"I don't know if what I'm feeling is love or lust." That statement made Lyna's eyes widen and she blinked a couple of times in surprise. "I've never been in love before so I can't..."

"How does your stomach feel?"

"Like butterflies."

Lyna rubbed at her own face and inhaled deeply before smiling at Olivia. "Lust isn't butterflies." The older woman looked down at her bowl. "Alright, when you look at me. Do you have a desire to have sex with me?" 

A shake of her head was Lyna's answer. "When I look at you, all I want too do is make you happy and safe. Grab your face and kiss it."

A small laugh escaped the 24 year old. "Than you love me or at least like me but it's okay. You know why?" Olivia shook her head again. "Cause I love you too."

When looking up at the younger woman, all the blonde saw was one of the biggest smiles she had ever seen on the Vault Dweller's face since they started living together. "You love me?"

"I love you." whispered the younger woman, her smile still on her face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not good at slow burn stuff lol. I figured Lyna would admit her feelings by the end of chapter 3 or beginning of 4. Also, yes I know I named a Deathclaw Sparkles...can sorta blame my mom for that one, she named my Deathclaw Funko POP Sparkles because "It's so ugly it's cute and needed a cute, ironic name."
> 
> Jake might return but he won't be an ass or if he is, Sparkles and Olivia will have something to say about it but I'm not entirely sure. Lance and Scott will be in the next chapter more and I know the NPCS are dead in the game but listening to holotapes made me wish they were alive...so I'm keeping some alive such as Maria and maybe if I can learn more about Molly from the Firebreathers (I think that was her name) I might keep her alive too.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took a lot longer than I originally planned when writing this story but I finally managed to finish the 4th chapter.

Since the day Lyna said she loved Olivia, the blonde kept thinking about it. She didn't repeat it back but the younger woman understood, Olivia hadn't really been around a lot of humans and the only people she only loved was family. She had never in all of her 37 years loved someone outside of those she considered family until on October 25th when a naive little Vaultie pushed her way into her heart.

Olivia wrapped up some radstag meat into some cloth then covering that up with some actual plastic wrap she had found when looting a basement of a house a month before Lyna arrived. Maria had cleared Lyna, told her she was able to go and come as she pleased now. She opened the backpack Lyna used, that silly Vault 76 backpack that Vault-Tec apparently assumed was a good idea to make for their Dwellers.

"Where are you going today?" asked the blonde as Lyna came out from the bathroom, her hair damp. She had decided to shower before leaving.

"Uh..." she moved to the map Scott had given her. She looked for the location Kathryn had shown her and pointed.

Moving over, Olivia looked. "You're going to the Whitesprings Resort?" Lyna hummed and shrugged. "That's the Whitesprings Resort."

"Then that's where we're going, I guess." muttered the 24 year old.

The older woman made a noise, once seeing Lyna only dressed in her Vault suit and held up a finger. A silent way of signaling for Lyna to wait a minute. She went to her workshop and grabbed what she needed before coming back to the younger woman. "You're not going out there with some sort of armor on. I kept putting it off and maybe if I hadn't than..." Olivia went quiet.

That made the younger woman stop. Wait. Did Olivia blame herself for Lyna getting shot by a Scorched? "If you're blaming yourself, stop." The older woman didn't look at her as she rubbed her thumb against the leather of the shoulder armor she had made Lyna. "Can you help me put it on?"

Olivia walked over and strapped the armor onto her shoulders before taking the metal armor for her legs and strapping it on, having her test that she could easily bend her legs without restriction. She grabbed some combat armor she managed to repair and pressed it against Lyna's chest before pressing against her and tightening the straps on the back. She grasped it and moved it a bit, happy with it being secure against her chest, the armor going over her stomach. "All secured."

Lyna kissed Olivia's cheek and smiled. "Thank you."

"Be careful. I don't like the idea of you going that far out." sighed the blonde.

Tilting her head, the 24 year old smiled softly. "I won't be alone. I'll have Kathryn and Sparkles. She's been there already and the robots on the grounds will not attack us, they attack anything else that seems hostile so I know I gotta keep Sparkles away from the robots."

Reaching into the pocket of the jacket that Olivia had chosen to wear this chilly morning, she held out what looked like a grenade. "Take this. Test it for me." The younger woman grasped it and weighed it in her hand, it was about as heavy as a baseball but wasn't made out of it. "If it works the way I want it too, I will make more for you."

"What kinda grenade is it?" she asked.

"It's like a frag but...not. I've designed it so shrapnel shoots out of it but when it explodes, it also blinds people like a flash bang. So when you throw it, don't look. Throw and duck behind something, if you must, close your eyes." Holding the grenade in her hand, Lyna nodded before placing it into the pouch on the leather belt she still wore from when Isaac made it. "Now I'll walk you into Flatwoods."

Olivia had been walking her too and from Flatwoods since Maria gave her permission to move around a lot more around the time Karen and Kathryn worked on their homes. Once Lyna put her backpack on, they both left the house and Kathryn left the tent area where Karen was brewing up some coffee she had managed to get from that bunker she originally planned on going too on the day of the Great War before Scott ruined her plans. Karen waved and moved to the grill she had set up.

Kathryn dug a container out of her bag and passed it to Lyna who took it. On it read Cajun Rice and Beans. Karen did do a lot of hunting but she took some of the food from the bunker, none of it expired. She held it to Olivia, the blonde taking it and stashing it away into the black haired woman's backpack. Sparkles came running after them, apparently having not paid attention when they left the house and walked behind Lyna.

Approaching Flatwoods, Olivia grabbed Lyna's face and kissed her cheek before wishing her good luck and heading towards the tavern. Kathryn was leading the way, having been there before and made sure to mark it on the map she had found. They needed to head East. It gave the two young women a chance to catch up with one another. Apparently East was the direction that Jack, Kathryn and those that stuck with Jack went. Two of them had been killed by Super Mutants and almost was killed my Mole Miners...whatever the fuck those were.

"You're still good at hacking right?" asked Kathryn as they walked down the road that lead to the Whitesprings Resort.

"Yeah. Why?"

"Cause we can't get into almost every room in the Resort. I guess the robots think they're waiting for a building inspector, I found holotapes of three or four employees who were stuck there with around ninety visitors when the bombs dropped. They were kicked out in seventy-nine I think because of the robots believing construction was going to start." informed the caramel toned woman.

Odd. Yeah she might be able to fix that and reprogram them. Something she learned in 76, she was spoken to by the Overseer so many times about reprograming a Mister Handy or hacking into terminals. It was actually one of the things she wanted to do when seeing that Responders Eyebot back at the airport. She had seen it broken and knew she could hack into it and repair it. Granted yeah, she was put in Hydroponics in the Vault but everyone learned more than just one thing.

Approaching the Whitesprings Train Station, Lyna ordered Sparkles to stay until she called her. The Deathclaw went into the large tent and Lyna closed one flap so if anyone walked by they wouldn't see the Deathclaw. The two Vault Dwellers walked onto the hotel grounds, the robots greeting them. She saw Assaultrons, Sentry Bots, Mr. Handys, and Protectrons. Okay then...talk about good security.

Kathryn opened one of the hotel's front doors and let Lyna in first, the woman groaning at the carpet. It hurt her eyes. "Yeah that was my reaction." she chuckled. "You'll eyes will adjust. Wait until you see the other carpets."

"Oh dear Lord." she laughed.

The two young women searched for a terminal, any terminal really that Lyna could probably access other terminals from. The Overseer, after lecturing her one day, gave her a holotape. Stating if she wanted to hack a terminal that she needed to do it right. They found the manager's office and Kathryn shut the door as Lyna sat down at the table and pulled the holotape out, she carried it on her at all times in case she needed it. She quickly slid it into the slot on the top of the terminal and hit several buttons as she waited for the program to enter the computer.

The 23 year old approached her from the side and looked. "So I think you'd wanna look up robots. I don't know what else there would be."

Chewing at her lower lip, Lyna typed in the word robot before typing in a buncha code that the Overseer said might come useful. She broke through some firewall and looked up as she heard an Assaultron talking outside the door, praying to whatever God would listen to her that it didn't come in and attack them for this. She clicked her tongue a couple times as she looked for what she wanted. "Ah." she said with a smile. "Reprogram robots." She hit enter on it once highlighting the option.

"What are you going to reprogram it as?"

"No construction. Prepare for Hotel guests." she spoke typing it. "Just need to edit their attack program too. I don't need them attacking Sparkles. I know she won't be hostile towards them so I need to just tweak that..." she shifted in her seat and pursed her lips. "They won't attack unless attacked first." She typed the code into the computer before hitting enter. "That's done..."

She erased the search for robots and hit what read emergency override of rooms. She leaned her head on her left arm, propping her elbow against the table. "What are you doing now?"

Exhaling, the 24 year old ran a hand through her hair, silently wishing she had Olivia braid it before she left. "I need to put my handprint into one of the scanners and then we can get into the rooms." she smiled as she hit enter. She grabbed her back and ejected the holotape. "Come on, let's find the nearest scanner."

It didn't take them long, they found one situated on the wall near a set of closed double doors. She pressed her hand to it and watched as the scanner did it's job before lighting up green, indicating it took her handprint. She grabbed the door knob and opened it to see the kitchen. "Good job!" said Kathryn jumping onto Lyna's back as she laughed.

The two went and cleared every room, making sure nobody and nothing was inside of it. Then Lyna wasn't sure who's bright idea it was to grab one of those trolleys that carried luggage and ride it around the hotel. A woman entered the front door as the two younger woman ended up crashing the trolley.

"What the hell?!" asked the woman making Lyna sit up.

"Strange lady!" she shouted ducking back down.

"Stranger danger?" asked Kathryn peaking up before she was pulled down.

The woman rose a brow and walked over. "I won't hurt you two but to be fair, I wasn't expecting two girls to crash a luggage trolley." she spoke making Lyna peak out. "Alright, I'm Joyce Easton."

The 24 year old narrowed her eyes at her. "Lyna Carter...that was Kathryn Michaels."

The older woman nodded as she stared at the both of them. "I came to visit and heard a robot tell me that rooms were available..."

"Lyna reprogrammed the robots." spoke Kathryn peaking out.

Joyce looked surprised. "Wait. You reprogramed them?"

Lyna nodded as she watched her carefully. "Seventy-six made sure we were prepared for anything. The Overseer encouraged my hacking abilities."

"Seventy six?" she asked when Lyna stood up, showing the blue and yellow jumpsuit. "You're Vault Dwellers?"

The two nodded together when Joyce sighed. "If only we met you a few years ago, we could've stayed here."

Lyna played with her ponytail a bit, still wishing she had Olivia braid it before she left. "The Vault didn't open until..." she knitted her brows together and looked down to see it was November 3rd. "October twenty third. We opened twenty five years after the bombs fell but I didn't even know this place existed, Kathryn did due to coming here before."

The older woman almost seemed to be battling internally with herself. "Do you have a group?"

"My dad is a medic for the Responders. So yes, I have a group. Mostly Responders with Kathryn, my Godmother, and someone I've been staying with." there was a roar from outside. "And my Deathclaw."

The mention of a Deathclaw made Joyce pale but she seemed to quickly repeat what she said in her head. The young woman had said _my Deathclaw_. Lyna walked outside and grabbed onto Sparkles' horns as the Deathclaw lifted her head and roared making her laugh as she was pulled off her feet. She lifted herself up and down as she giggled, she really could do her pull ups using Sparkles' horns.

Joyce came out with Kathryn, looking skeptical as the young woman dropped down from the horns. "You have a Deathclaw?" she asked making Lyna nod. "How?"

"Found it stuck in a bear trap, it's mama was dead and she imprinted on me." she answered truthfully as Sparkles rested her head on Lyna's shoulder, the weight almost shoving her down but she managed to keep herself up. "We should return to Flatwoods and get the others, I'd feel safer if we were all inside of the hotel."

The older woman pursed her lips as she thought. "So all the rooms and apartments are open?" The Vault Dwellers nodded. "Charleston isn't safe, hasn't been since the war happened but I went there to try and live..."

"Take an apartment." spoke Lyna as she began walking away. "We're gonna go get our group!"

The older woman watched the two Vault Dwellers and Deathclaw walk away before exhaling slowly. She hadn't been here in a couple of years and it felt nice to be back, it just upset her that no one else from her time staying here was around, she just prayed they were still alive. 

On the way back to Flatwoods, Lyna taught Kathryn how to situate herself on Sparkles' back just right. Sparkles didn't seem to mind their feet pressed against her, most likely due to how touch her skin was, and they just held onto their spikes. Using Sparkles as a means to get back to Flatwoods was actually a lot faster than just them walking with her. Lyna released Sparkles and landed on her feet as Sparkles ran right to Olivia's home. Kathryn going to tell others what the plan was.

The young woman jogged up the steps as Sparkles ran after Kathryn. "Olivia!"

"How was my grenade?" asked the blonde coming out of their bedroom.

"Haven't used it yet. We're moving." she quickly spoke making the blonde raise a brow. "The Whitesprings. It's more secure. We'd be safer. I know you made this your place but..."

The blonde waved her hands and took Lyna's face in them. "Stop. Okay, I see your meaning. I've been by the Whitesprings, it is more secure and there are robots on the property. I'm going to need a wagon of sorts and your Deathclaw."

Lyna nodded and went to leave but turned back around and kissed Olivia's cheek before running out of the house screaming for Sparkles. When she got into Flatwoods, she got her father and grandfather to help her bring a wagon to her house with Sparkles. The others were trying to get a hold of the two remaining brahmin wandering around Flatwoods. Kathryn was helping Karen get their stuff together and take down their tent, granted they just finished building their house like a day or so ago but at least it was here if any survivors were wandering by and needed a place to stay. Lyna packed all of her stuff up and secured it onto the wagon as Scott carefully attached it to Sparkles, mainly still worried the creature would attack him. He managed to put the straps around her and Olivia brought her packed bags out.

Lance and Scott brought out Olivia's workbench and strapped it down as the blonde secured her box of components and chemicals as Lyna was packing up their food, securing the boxes in the small fridge that had been in the shed that Olivia insisted they bring. Olivia and Lyna gathered everything that was of importance, Lyna placing her long forgotten guitar onto her back. The two brahmins were attached too wagons and everyone else packed their stuff up, Maria came to the conclusion to leave the Vender bot in case survivors came by and needed medical supplies and that she'd stop by once in a while to refill his supplies. She'd have to stop at the Morgantown Airport to get another Responders Vender Bot or take one of their robots off their patrols to use.

Once everyone had their things together, they began making their way to the Whitesprings. Lyna and Kathryn leadings as Sparkles walked behind them, Maria was holding the reins on one of the brahmins as Lance, Scott, and Olivia walked together with the second brahmin. Olivia was watching Lyna as the younger woman spoke to Kathryn, holding onto the strap her guitar was attached too as it rested against her chest.

"You keep staring at her." spoke Scott making Olivia quickly look at him then look away. "If you like her, tell her."

"I did..." she stopped. No, Lyna admitted she loved Olivia while Olivia just stared at her. "Okay I suggested I did while she admits that she loves me."

Scott and Lance almost sighed simultaneously. "You need to talk to her about it before she finds someone else." spoke the older man. "When I met Scott's mother, I knew she was the one I'd be with for the rest of my life."

"And I knew Phoibe was who I'd be with." added Scott. "Does Lyna make you feel that?"

The blonde bit at her lower lip as she looked back at Lyna, the young woman laughing as she spoke to Kathryn. It made a knot form in her stomach that she knew could only be described as jealousy. "Yes."

The two men just looked at each other before looking at Lyna. "Tell her." stated the older Carter man. "Before someone else scoops her up, like Kathryn."

"They already dated." added Karen catching up to them, she had stopped at one of the buildings they went by to check something out. Lance and Scott both looked at her. "Lyna's a lesbian, dated Kathryn when they were younger. They're just friends now. She didn't tell you? I mean at thought she'd tell her father she was a lesbian."

Scott just shook his head. It's not like it came up in their conversation but then again she could've mentioned it the day he returned to Flatwoods, he couldn't remember much from their talk because of how tired he was that day. He saw Olivia shake her head slightly while muttering to herself, he did hope Olivia would say something to Lyna.

The looks on the others' faces when they arrived at the Whitesprings was fucking priceless and Lyna loved it. She left Sparkles sitting outside keeping an eye on the brahmin as she lead the others inside. While Scott and Maria went to check out the pharmacy they had, Olivia jumped as Lyna grabbed her hand and tugged her up the small set of stairs and down the hallway of the shops.

"What are you doing?" asked Olivia. 

Lyna remained quiet as she pulled her to a store and stopped in the doorway. "I knew you'd like this store, so it was the first thing I wanted to show you." she spoke as Olivia looked around. There were numerous workbenches, like the one she had and there was even chemicals that she used for her experiments. "So I figured, we'd put your workbench in our room but if you didn't want to be cooped up in there all day, you could come down here and use a bench."

The blonde looked at the Vault Dweller, the black haired girl looking around the store. A kiss was pressed against her cheek making her jump a little and look. "Thank you." she whispered before pulling Lyna into a hug and the young woman hugged her back.

Joyce had found an apartment to take but the overwhelming presence of ghouls stopped her from going in. Lyna would have to take care of that with Sparkles or her father and grandfather. Lyna and Olivia had taken one of the bedrooms on the top floor, once moving the trolleys away from the door they were in front of. Lyna just sat her things on the side of the bed she'd be taking as Olivia got to remaking it, the sheets and blankets were a bit too dusty. The Vault Dweller left the hotel with a marker in her hand, thankfully finding it in the desk drawer and ran over to the nearest apartment, Sparkles following. She drew lines to show herself, hopefully either tonight or sometime in the morning, how much of the front wall she wanted to get rid of so Sparkles could have it as her own little home for when it rained and what not.

She'd need a sledgehammer. Hopefully the maintenance and laundry building had one laying around. She and Sparkles made their way around the grounds, Sparkles killing the Ghouls that ran at them with help from any near by robots. Lyna had taken Olivia's pistol to shoot any ghouls, granted she'd take her hunting rifle but that could cause a whole mess of ghouls to run at her because of how loud each shot was. She fired the gun twice, shooting a ghoul that ran at her, twice in the head. Scott and Lance were putting the dead feral ghouls into a pile, dousing them in alcohol as a way to burn the bodies near the maintenance building.

It took the Vault Dweller and her Deathclaw about an hour to clear all the ghouls from the property. She looked at Olivia's gun, it felt odd in her hand but that could be because she was so used to holding a hunting rifle. Sparkles grabbed two dead ghoul bodies in her hands and dropped them in the pile that the two men had been forming. Once the last ghoul body got into the pile, they cleared the maintenance and laundry building, Scott lit the pile on fire as Lyna pressed a cloth over her mouth and nose to block out the smell of the burning bodies. Her father ushered her away with the sledge hammer, she should work on the house in the morning but Sparkles needed shelter for the night.

It was another hour since the ghoul bodies were burned when Olivia walked out of the hotel, a slight look of worriement on her face. She heard a noise and looked towards the apartments. Approaching the side stairs leading up to the porch, she saw Lyna tearing down some of the wall as Sparkles laid on the porch watching. Her vault suit was unzipped to her waist and the arms tied around her waist. She pulled down a section of the wall when she looked to the side and saw Olivia looking at her. "What?" she asked, panting slightly. She licked at her dry lips as she and the blonde stared at one another.

"I got worried. How come nobody is helping you?" she asked.

Lyna shrugged and grabbed the sledge hammer to strike the wall some more. Olivia saw a rather large set of wood leaning against the railing, it looked as if it had been ripped from a tree. "Sparkles ripped that off a nearby tree while sharpening her fucking claws, I figured I'd carve Sparkles' den into it or something."

The blonde picked it up and sat down in a chair by the table that Lyna had pushed into the corner of the porch. "I got it." she spoke as she pulled out the knife she carried on her and got to carving out Sparkles' Den into the wood.

With in another thirty minutes, the wall was knocked down and Lyna let out a sigh of relief as she sat the sledge hammer down and Sparkles went right in. Olivia hung up the sign and Lyna sat down in the chair that the blonde had been previously occupying. Looking at it, Lyna had only knocked down half of the wall, the other half would provide cover if the rain or thunderstorms got too bad but Sparkles would be safe from the elements...after all every Deathclaw needed a shelter of their own.

"You need a bath my dear." informed the blonde holding her hands out towards her, the black haired woman grasping them and she was pulled to her feet.

The look on Lyna’s face was probably a look of confusion. “The plumbing works?” Olivia chuckled and lead the 24 year old back into the hotel.

Sure enough the plumbing still worked. As Lyna stripped down, Olivia had started the bath for her. She folded her clothes up and sat it aside before walking into the bathroom, stepping into the bath. A soft sigh escaped her as she sank into the tub, the water going to just above her mouth. Olivia chuckled and rubbed at her head before leaving to find a fresh 76 suit for Lyna to wear when she got out.

The blonde returned shortly after, seeing the young woman with her right arm draped over the tub and her head resting on her shoulder, her eyes closed. “Can’t fall asleep in the tub.” she informed, running her hand gently through Lyna’s hair. “You want me to go and get you something to eat?”

“Please.” she smiled.

Humming, the 37 year old kissed her forehead before standing up and leaving. She left the room she and Lyna had chosen to stay in and made her way to the kitchen area. When entering, she saw Kathryn moving around the kitchen and trying to avoid the robots. She didn’t fully like Kathryn, most likely cause deep down she was jealous of her relationship with Lyna, a relationship she knew she could have with Lyna if she just admitted she loved her in return. She shook her head and moved to look at what they had for food and took some frog meat that Lance had gone out and hunted at the pool...yes the pool at the hotel.

Kathryn looked towards her as the blonde fired up the stove, hovering her hand over the burner until she felt it warm up. “Where’s Lyna?”

“Taking a bath.” she informed as she cut up some of the meet, Olivia had only handled frog meat from time to time. She handled radtoad meat more than frog meat. “Making her some food.”

The younger woman brought some noodles over and the blonde rose a brow. “You don’t like me.”

“I don’t like a lot of people, kid.” she answered truthfully or at least half of the statement was true.

Wringing her hands, the 23 year old bit at her lower lip. “But you don’t like me, I’ve seen your looks.” The older woman said nothing as she cut up the meat into chunks. “I won’t take her from you.” The knife stilled and blue eyes looked towards Kathryn. “If you don’t like me because of my relationship with Lyna, I want you to know that I do care for her but she’s my best friend. I don’t have romantic feelings for her, I doubt I will ever again.”

Sighing, Olivia looked right at Kathryn and pressed the tip of the knife into the board she was using. “Can you start the noodles for me? I’d prefer if I didn’t have to make Lyna wait long.”

She saw a smile form on Kathryn’s face and nod, grabbing the noodles and a pan to fill it with water and place it on another burner to boil it. They said nothing else to one another but Olivia did thank her once the meal was done, she sat two bowls on the tray with an Orange Nuka Cola for Lyna and a standard Nuka Cola for herself. She passed by several Responders in the hallway, either getting the layout of the place down or trying to figure out which rooms they wanted. Scott and Lance were off somewhere while Maria was working on reprogramming the robot in the pharmacy to make him a Responder Bot.

When Olivia entered the room, she saw Lyna sitting on the edge of the bed with a towel draped over her head and shaking her hair out. She sat the tray down on the table by a set of large windows. “Kathryn helped me make dinner.” Lyna looked over and smiled. “I tried different meat, your grandfather found some frogs near the pool and I cooked up some of that with noodles. I also kept some broth.”

Lyna pulled her seat out and sat down. “Cool. I never had frog.”

“You’ve never had a lot of food I have.” chuckled the woman as she put the bowls and drinks on the table before setting aside the tray. Lyna scrunched her face up playfully and blew a playful kiss.

It made Olivia’s heart flutter. The girl never bothered her about not saying she loved her in return. “Smells good.” smiled the 23 year old and saw Olivia staring at her. “Going to sit down?”

The blonde sat down and pulled her bowl closer as Lyna opened up both of their Nuka Colas, putting Olivia’s bottle cap down by her as she took her own. The young woman dug into her food, cautiously taking her first bite cause she never tasted frog before. She seemed happy with it cause she smiled and began eating more. “Kid.” Lyna looked up, noodles sticking out of her mouth. She darted her tongue out to wet her dry lips as she saw the girl suck the noodles into her mouth and chew, tilting her head in question. “I love you too.”

She watched Lyna’s chewing slow a bit before swallowing, most likely not chewing fully cause she saw her flinch. “What?”

“I love you too.”

Lyna’s cheeks suddenly felt hot. She almost couldn’t believe it. She let Olivia have her time, she never bothered her about not saying it in return the day she did but it made her...happy. “I’d kiss you but...I’ll wait until I’m done with dinner.” she teased.

The older of the two smirked and she started eating her food as Lyna brought her right foot up to rest on the chair as she ate, she often sat like this from time to time. Alternating between eating her food and drinking her Nuka Cola. She drank the broth and set the bowl down before standing up and gathering the things together. She always cleaned up after herself, even in the vault and sat her stuff down on the bowl as Olivia finished her food up. The blonde finishing up shortly after and setting her stuff aside, turning her seat to the side.

The young woman moved to Olivia and sat down in her lap, facing her. She slid her hands through Olivia’s hair gently, combing through some snarls she caught. “Hi.” she smiled making Olivia chuckle and slid her hands on her hips. “So I’m not sure how to do this…I mean I know how to kiss someone but…”

Lips pressed against Lyna’s, the younger woman’s blue eyes narrowing as she slowly returned the kiss and slid her hand into Olivia’s hair to hold onto the back of her head. Trying to be daring, she nipped at Olivia’s lower lip and the blonde withdrew with a smirk. “Eager.”

“Of course I’m eager.” she chuckled sliding her hand down the side of her neck and resting it on her shoulder. “You told me you loved me too. I won’t lie...I thought you were regretting everything you said or came to the conclusion that you didn’t love me in return. I…”

A finger pressed to her lips before the hand slid and cupped her cheek. “Stop. I’m not good with this stuff, Lyna. You told me you loved me and I spent every day since then trying to figure out what you saw in me and how to say I love you too. Before I found a naked Vault Dweller in my shower, I was a loner.” Lyna played with some of Olivia’s hair as she blushed. “I would’ve stayed a loner if you hadn’t shown up.” Pressing her lips to Olivia’s forehead, the 23 year old wouldn’t lie as tears swelled in her eyes.

They weren’t tears of sadness or tears of anger, she was happy. She had been happy with Kathryn but she never made her feel like Olivia had. “I would’ve most likely been dead by now.” she whispered making the blonde laugh and hug her close.

“Nah, you got it in you to stay alive.”

Sighing softly, she kept her head tilted. “Not so sure about that, Liv.” she whispered as she rubbed her thumb against Olivia’s right temple as she lightly massaged the back of her head.

A hand cupped the back of her neck and she was tugged down, their lips meeting again and she exhaled into Olivia’s mouth. Almost melting in her lap as an arm wrapped around her waist to pull her closer. A tongue teased at her lips and she parted them, if she had her eyes opened they probably would’ve rolled back as Olivia’s tongue invaded her mouth. The arm around her waist shifted and she felt a hand traveling upwards, tucking itself underneath her tank top that she wore beneath her Vault Suit. Their lips parted when someone knocked on the door and Lyna became very aware that her hips were rocking in Olivia’s lap, grinding herself against her.

Pecking their lips together one last time, the black haired woman climbed off Olivia’s lap and moved to the door. She opened it and saw Karen standing there, she instantly rose a brow at Lyna’s disheveled appearance and kiss swollen lips. “Okay I interrupted something.”

“N-No.” she squeaked before clearing her throat. “What’s up?”

Karen didn’t buy it but choose not to speak about it. “Scott wanted your opinion on opening the doors to other survivors.”

Why did her father want her opinion? “Am I all of a sudden a leader?” Karen nodded. “O-Oh. Um...yeah I’m cool with it.”

The blonde nodded. “Cool, go back to your makeout session.”

“Karen!” she tried her best to do a chastising tone but her godmother left while laughing.

Olivia watched as Lyna shut the door and pressed her forehead too it. “You do look pretty all messed up and your lips swollen from kissing.”

“You fucking tease.” she tried to snap out but she was smiling. 

The older woman rose from her chair and walked over to the 24 year old, pulling her close and pressing their lips together in a quick but loving kiss. Their lips parted with an audible noise and Olivia smiled at her. “I’d take you to bed now but I don’t want to. Not now.”

Of course not now. Not while Lyna swore she had a mess between her legs from rocking in her lap. “Right.”

A kiss pressed just under her ear and the blonde slid her hands around her to give her a hug. “I want to make it perfect for you.”

“Oh, you need to make it perfect while you eat me out?” A hand smacked firmly against her ass and she mewled, pressing her mouth to Olivia’s shoulder.

A soft chuckle came from Olivia as she heard the noise. “So you like being spanked? Figures.”

Lyna just hummed and nuzzled her neck as she closed her eyes. She felt content in the 37 year old’s arms and was playing with a button on her top as she relaxed against her. She felt sleepy, most likely cause of all the running around, killing ghouls, and using that sledge hammer. She felt an arm go under her legs and she was hoisted up. “Bed time?” she muttered.

“For you.” Olivia carried her over to the bed and gently laid her down on the right side of the bed. She ran her eyes over the young woman to see if anything needed to be removed so she could sleep comfortably but she never put her vault suit back on, just her tank top and shorts. Instead she just shifted Lyna and pulled the blanket up over her. She pressed a kiss to her temple and heard Lyna inhale deeply and smiled.

Instead of getting up after that, she ran her fingers through Lyna’s still slightly damp hair as she watched her for a solid minute. One last kiss to her temple and she rose from the bed to move over to her workshop. She stared at it for a few minutes before gathering some materials and her notebook to start sketching out a plan for her next invention. She had an idea, she had seen the look out tower behind the resort when exploring and knew that would be a beautiful location to have a picnic and just make a special night for the two of them. Olivia didn’t get herself to bed until almost three hours after Lyna, pressing against her back and spooning with the younger woman. She was usually the one in bed later than Lyna and always woke up before her by a half an hour to an hour. 

The following morning it was thundering out, Lyna had woken to the sound of it before Olivia woke and stared up at the unfamiliar ceiling. She knew she was safe, Olivia’s arm was around her waist. Laying there, she remembered that they had moved out of Flatwoods and were currently living in the Whitesprings resort. She carefully tried to roll out of Olivia’s grasp but felt her tighten her grip on her.

“Stay.” rasped out the blonde’s voice.

Lyna rolled over and pushed hair from her face as she pecked their lips together. “I’m gonna go to the bathroom to brush my teeth and go get something to eat.”

The blonde groaned softly, probably not wanting Lyna to get up and leave, but she released her hold on the young woman. Lyna made her way into their bathroom and began brushing her teeth as she opened up the medicine cabinet to see if anything was in it. There were some herbal meds that Olivia either made or they were given to them by Maria. Thankfully the toothpaste didn’t expire or if it did, she couldn’t tell the difference. She rinsed her mouth out and quickly ran a brush through her hair before tying it back into a loose bun.

She quickly and quietly left the bedroom, keeping the door cracked, and made her way downstairs. The kitchen wasn’t empty, Scott was cooking up something. “Hey.” she spoke as she approached him.

“Hey.” he answered with a sleepy smile. “You just wake up?”

“Not use to thunderstorms yet.” she sighed as thunder rumbled above the resort.

Scott nodded as he looked at the coffee pot he had sitting on the burner. “You’ll get used to them eventually.” A loud bang was over the building and he jumped as Lyna shouted in surprise and swore to herself. “Yup, you’re definitely my child.”

With her father’s help, she cooked up some quick breakfast for herself and Olivia. Some mirelurk eggs, some form of bacon, and some rice...why did her father cook up rice this early in the morning? She took a cup of coffee for Olivia and a bottle of Nuka Cola for herself before taking the tray to their bedroom. Olivia was up by the time she entered the room, the older woman sitting at the table while running her hand through her brushed hair.

“What’s for breakfast?” she asked as Lyna sat down the tray. A brow being raised almost instantly. “Eggs, bacon, and...rice?”

“Dad made rice and said to take some. He suggested mixing the eggs and bacon into the rice so I might do that.” spoke Lyna as she sat the cup of coffee down in front of Olivia.

The blonde took her cup of coffee and sipped it, releasing a small groan in either pleasure or happiness cause she had her coffee. “What’s your plans for today?” she inquired as she took her bowl from Lyna.

Plans for today? She hadn’t really thought about it. “Scavenge maybe. I don’t...have any plans.”

“Well if scavenge is all you do, you know the drill.” Olivia informed as she watched the 24 year old rip up the bacon and toss it into the rice before scraping the eggs into the bowl. “Lyna.”

The dark haired woman hummed and looked at her. “Oh, right yeah. If I find anything that you might need, grab it.”

After their breakfast, Lyna got dressed in her Vault suit and tucked the zipper away as she left the room. She put her backpack on her back and made her way down to the lower floor where the bag that Olivia had created for Sparkles to wear so she could care things that Lyna couldn’t. She grabbed it and walked out of the door before whistling sharply, the sound of running was heard and Sparkles came running towards her. She put the bag on her back before clipping the straps closed against her chest. She grabbed the strap and shook it lightly, it was snug but not too snug that it would bother the creature.

The two made their way to the entrance of the Whitesprings, well one of the entrances, and began their little scavenging journey. She didn’t want to venture too far, she didn’t know the surrounding area but she knew a couple areas, mainly passing them when with Kathryn. They went to the Whitespring Station, when she opened the door she wasn’t entirely sure what she was expecting, there was a robot standing inside of a fancy looking station. She huffed and looked around, figured the resort would’ve had a fancy train station. Tssking, she knew she couldn’t take anything in here without the robot possibly getting hostile, so she turned around and walked down to the tents that were set up in the parking lot.

She could use the tent but how long would it take to take apart? She rubbed at her head and shook her head before moving towards the table and looking at the yellow grill sitting on top of the table, it needed some form of fuel to work but she was sure she could find it. Lyna closed the top and locked it in place before whistling, Sparkles came running over and she carefully placed it into the backpack before checking out the bottles, most of them were empty but there was a voice in the back of her head that told her not to leave them, that she could re-purpose them. Putting them in the backpack could spell trouble, the last thing she wanted to do was pick glass out of it, so she looked around before finding a grocery carriage. It would work, she took all of the empty bottles and placed them carefully into the carriage before smiling as she scored an unopened bottle of Nuka-Cola.

“Mine.” she chuckled putting it into her backpack.

Inside the tent, she found a radio and tilted it a bit as she flicked the power button. The dial moved an inch but ultimately stopped, maybe Olivia could fix it. She placed it into the carriage and moved to the suitcases. One of them was locked, so she pulled out her lockpicks and set to opening it, she nearly broke her lock pick when she managed to unlock it and stuck the pick in her mouth as she opened the suitcase. Shifting the piece of metal to the side of her mouth, she rose a brow as she stared at what looked like several dresses, a book that was obviously old due to the yellowing on the pages with a fading picture used as a bookmark, and lastly a compact with a shattered mirror. She closed it and hoisted the suitcase up and sat it in the carriage before checking the other to find it was empty.

Lyna would talk to her dad about the tent, maybe they could use it on the golf course or near the gold club? She’d figure it out later. There wasn’t much else at the train station and to be honest, she didn’t want to venture too far. If she did, she’d want more locations marked on her map and someone else with her and Sparkles as backup. Pushing the carriage, she decided that instead of going right back to the main building at the Whitesprings, she’d stop at one of the clusters of apartments and look through them.

Sparkles followed without hesitation as the human approached the gate and walked around the bar that was lowered down, probably to stop cars before the war. The first apartment was pretty much barren except for the bed, the mattress nearly off the frame but she pushed it back into place. She did find a jar of buffout in the medicine cabinet with one stimpak. She scored when she opened up the hamper, there was two unopened boxes of soap that she quickly snatched up and sniffed in hopes that it still had a scent. It was faint but it smelled vaguely like lavender; she wasn’t positive.

 

The other two rooms didn’t have a lot of other stuff, same as the first one, but she managed to find various items. She was happy when she found an empty notebook, she still had the one Olivia gave her but maybe someone else would want it. She found a piece of leather armor, she wouldn’t wear it but Olivia might be able to repair it and give it to someone else. It was the last room where she found a set of unused paint and she lit up automatically. They weren’t dark colors, they were bright colors that would obviously stand out against the bottles she had in the carriage outside and thankfully there was two paint brushes by it. She looked at her Pip-Boy and rose a brow at the fact she had been gone for almost two hours; she was very thorough when looking through out the rooms for anything useful.

Walking outside, she grabbed the basket by the door that had five empty milk bottles in it and walked to the carriage. Sparkles was sitting by it patiently as she looked around before tilting her head at her human as she approached her. “Alright girl, let's get you back home.” she smiled making the Deathclaw release a rumbling purr and follow her human as she began to walk away.

Lance was outside smoking a cigarette when Lyna approached him. “Hey kiddo.” he spoke as she pushed the carriage beside him and he rose a brow.

“Hey...grandpa?”

“Grandpa is fine.” he laughed. “Or pop.”

“Figure it out later.” she stated as she undid the buckles from Sparkles’ backpack and grunted as she caught the heavy bag. “Help.”

Lance rubbed his cigarette against the wall until it was out before running over and grabbing the backpack. “Got it.” he took it, grunting a little due to its weight and Sparkles ran from the both of them and to her home.

With her grandfather’s help, they got the stuff into the Whitespring and sat the bag down beside the carriage as Lyna undid her hair and ran her fingers through it. She heard a shout and looked to the side to see Olivia crouched by something and her thumb inside of her mouth as she looked annoyed. She walked over and looked down curiously as the blonde tilted her head back, sliding her thumb out of her mouth.

Lyna tilted her head at the thing in front of her. It had what looked like two lockers fused together but one had a chain link door and there was a soda machine attached to it? “It’s a vending machine. It’s a…”

“I know what it is, Liv. We had them in the vault.” she spoke. Granted they were Nuka-Cola machines but still.

“Right, well it’s a prototype I wanna work on. Give a run, lemme know how it works. If the trail passes than I’ll make more.”

She looked at the piece of wood painted red with the white letters reading where to put the Caps. She hummed and looked at the blonde. “Wait, I’m doing the trail?”

The older woman shrugged slightly. “I mean you’ll find a lot of stuff out there. If I or anyone else here cannot use it, than sell it. Even if it’s one of those dumb weird plastic lawn flamingos...someone will buy it. There’s a market for everything.”

The 24 year old pursed her lips as she stared at the machine a bit more before smiling. “We can set it up here for now?” Olivia nodded. “Alright, we can figure out permanent location if your trial passes and you end up making more than just this one. I’d suggest somewhere near one of the main entrances but there’s also the shopping areas but…” She was already putting too much thought into it. Shaking her head, she chuckled. “We’ll figure it out later.”

Scott ran over and almost seemed out of breath, his daughter raising a brow. “You need to come with me?” That caused the eyebrow to arch further. “Survivors arrived, they want to live here. I didn’t think word would get around this fast but you need to look them over with me.” He grabbed her hand and smiled at Olivia before dragging his daughter off.

The blonde chuckled and turned to the vending machine as she took the paint she had been using and carefully wrote ‘ _Lyna’s Vending Machine_ ’ across one of the lockers. If survivors were moving here, then maybe she’d have to make more. “Looks like I might need more material.” she spoke looking down the hall to see Lyna disappear around the corner, trying her hardest to keep up with her father.

Lyna had never had such a hard time trying to keep up with someone before as she was dragged to the main entrance of the Whitesprings. She nearly tripped going up the stairs, her father holding her hand tightly in his own. She was lead outside and saw Lance standing there with Maria. Somehow, some way, she had also been made one of the leaders in this group. She knew Olivia and Karen probably didn’t want it and out of the Vault Dwellers that was at the Resort, aside from herself being Karen and Kathryn, she knew apart from her godmother that she was the oldest. She looked straight ahead and saw a group of maybe twenty or more men and women.

“Uh…”

“What do we do?” asked Lance looking at the other three. “We never thought about what we do if people wanna live here.”

Lyna tried her hardest, what would the Overseer do? The Overseer would want to protect the people she was in charge of, she’d want to know about them and determine from there if they were a suitable choice to stay with them. “Interviews.” she spoke making the three look at her. “We set up an area, interview them. If any alarm bells go off, we discuss it among one another and take a vote.”

Maria smiled at her. “That’s a good idea.” she spoke. “I agree with it.”

“Not gonna argue with Phoibe’s kid.” chuckled Lance.

Scott looked at his daughter for at most, a solid minute before rubbing at the back of his neck and nodded. “Good think you got your mom’s brains cause I had no idea what to do.”

“Who’s going to address them? I would but this is different than someone trying to join the Responders.” sighed Maria as she looked at the group, some of them were talking to each other while some sat off to the side by themselves or with whoever they came with.

Thinking, she knew there was one thing that might keep people in line. “Can I…?” she motioned and the three nodded. “Excuse me!” Everyone looked towards her. “My name is Lyna Carter, I am one of the four leaders here. We will be doing interviews shortly and if everyone goes good, you will be in a room by nightfall!” 

At first she thought people were going to get upset, after all sometimes interviewing someone could piss the wrong person off, but everyone cheered and clapped. How long had they been out in Appalachia without a place to call their own? Hopefully they’d fix that by nightfall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter I'm gonna work in new OCs (mostly friends' OCs and some of my own but I'll of course put who belongs to who in the notes of then next chapter) and Phoibe might show up? I'm still working out that part. I might need to make up a name for the Overseer if I plan on her showing up next chapter as well since her name is never really mentioned and maybe I'm sick of writing "Overseer" lol.
> 
> I hope to update this soon but If I'm honest, my Borderlands fic has most of my attention at the moment but I'll try my hardest to update this as soon as I can :)

**Author's Note:**

> The someone watching The Overseer and Phoibe will appear in the next chapter :) and I might try to post chapter 2 before the game comes out but it all depends on where I wanna go with it cause I need more lore than what I already know (thanks to Oxhorn and his Fallout Lore videos) but I'll try my best to update it before the game comes out on Nov 14th (15? 16? I can't remember lol)


End file.
